to consideration. Without derogating from the biographic claims of
those who minister to intellect and taste, those who minister to
utility need not be overlooked. When a Frenchman was praising to Sir
John Sinclair the artist who invented ruffles, the Baronet shrewdly
remarked that some merit was also due to the man who added the shirt.

A distinguished living mechanic thus expresses himself to the Author
on this point: - "Kings, warriors, and statesmen have heretofore
monopolized not only the pages of history, but almost those of
biography. Surely some niche ought to be found for the Mechanic,
without whose skill and labour society, as it is, could not exist. I
do not begrudge destructive heroes their fame, but the constructive
ones ought not to be forgotten; and there IS a heroism of skill and
toil belonging to the latter class, worthy of as grateful
record,--less perilous and romantic, it may be, than that of the
other, but not less full of the results of human energy, bravery, and
character. The lot of labour is indeed often a dull one; and it is
doing a public service to endeavour to lighten it up by records of
the struggles and triumphs of our more illustrious workers, and the
results of their labours in the cause of human advancement."

As respects the preparation of the following memoirs, the Author's
principal task has consisted in selecting and arranging the materials
so liberally placed at his disposal by gentlemen for the most part
personally acquainted with the subjects of them, and but for whose
assistance the book could not have been written. The materials for
the biography of Henry Maudslay, for instance, have been partly
supplied by the late Mr. Joshua Field, F.R.S. (his partner), but
principally by Mr. James Nasmyth, C.E., his distinguished pupil. In
like manner Mr. John Penn, C.E., has supplied the chief materials for