Lord Brougham rose, pursuant to notice, to present to their Lordships a petition from the Earl of Dundonald, on the subject of his Lordship's patent for an improvement in steam machinery, as applicable to ships. The noble and learned Lord took that opportunity to advert at some length to various useful inventions of the father of the Earl of Dundonald. That noble Lord was a most scientific man; but, by his application to scientific discoveries, instead of increasing his wealth, he had greatly impaired his fortune. Amongst his most useful inventions was that of coal-tar, which was now so generally applied for the protection of wood and wooden buildings. At first—nay, for many years, indeed until after the period of the patent had expired, there was a great objection to using that valuable article. It was regarded as most disagreeable in its smell, on account of the hydrogenous gas mixing with the coal; and this was regarded as being disagreeable and tainting the air. But this smell was soon dispersed and lost on account of the volatile compound which formed the coal-tar. The late noble Earl's patent expired at the end of fourteen years, but on application to Parliament the term was renewed. Nevertheless, although he had the patent twenty-eight years, he obtained nothing for his invention, for the public entertained such strong prejudices against using it, that it was not until long afterwards that the invention was held of value. The late noble Earl was also a great promoter of agriculture; so long ago as 1803 he published a work applying chemistry to agriculture, which was at this day considered as a text-book on the ssubject. The noble and 997 learned Lord, after pronouncing a warm eulogium upon the distinguished gallantry and professional skill of the present Earl of Dundonald, expressed an earnest hope that the House would listen to the prayer of his noble Friend's petition. His invention was one of great importance. There were many difficulties to solve which other parties had in vain endeavoured to overcome. The invention of which he spoke would effect a material change in the steam-engine, the object of his noble Friend being to introduce a rotatory motion. This mechanical invention it was not so easy, without much preparation, to explain to their Lordships, as it was to put them in possession of the details of the chymical discovery to which he had just alluded; but if any noble Lords felt sufficiently interested in the subject to examine its details, he would find that the encyclopædias generally stated the object which Lord Dundonald had accomplished to be impossible; and Watt himself had been foiled in his attempt to solve that extraordinary problem. But Lord Cochrane, now Lord Dundonald, succeeded in effecting that which Watt had failed in accomplishing. His noble Friend having got over the difficulties of this problem took out a patent, of which thirteen years had already expired. It had, therefore, but one year to run, and the Bill not long since introduced and carried through Parliament gave the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council only the power of extending a patent of this nature for a further period of seven years. Now, seven years would not be sufficient to remunerate him for the trouble which he had taken and the expense which he had incurred; and Mr. Watt for his great invention had been under the necessity of applying to Parliament for fourteen years more, otherwise instead of dying in the enjoyment of large wealth, he would have died, like the late Earl of Dundonald, very poor. On these grounds he did beg to press the subject upon the consideration of the House, in the hope that they would see the expediency and the justice of giving to Lord Dundonald the full benefit of his invention.
The Earl of Haddingtonexpressed his entire concurrence in what had fallen from his noble and learned Friend with respect to the discoveries of the late Earl of Dundonald; and it was no doubt perfectly true, that the public were reaping the benefit of the exertions of a whole life, 998 whilst he was entirely dependent on his gallant son, the present Earl. With respect to the Earl of Dundonald, as a naval officer, there could be but one opinion—he was as gallant as daring, and as skilful an officer as ever walked the quarterdeck of a man-of-war. He believed that all his noble Friend had said would be remembered by all who recollected his feats, or who had read the naval history of the last war. With regard to the inventions of Lord Dundonald there could be no doubt that they were likely to turn out most important, and they were such as must necessarily have caused great expenses. So far he had had the advantage of having his works put up at Portsmouth Yard, by leave of the last Government. And the time for its remaining there had been extended by the present Government; but it was impossible, except after a great length of time, to bring these discoveries to perfection. It was a most beautiful and promising discovery, and the Admiralty had shown their sense of its merits by allowing the noble Lord to build a ship, of which he had himself laid down the lines, and he had received the report of the chief engineering department, containing a most promising account of the progress. The machinery took very little room, much less than the old.
The Marquess of NormanbyAs his noble Friend had alluded to the first professional distinction of the noble Earl, under his father, he must say, that though he was too young at the time to recollect the services, he had never heard his father mention the noble Lord's name without commendations of his extraordinary professional abilities and determination of character, which led to his employment in the difficult service of the Basque-roads.
§ Petition laid on the Table.