David Napier by David Napier and David Bell: Note 15
15. CHARLES MCINTOSH, F.R.S. (1766-1843)
This distinguished scientist was the author of numerous inventions and improvements in chemistry, chiefly relating to industrial products. His earlier researches were carried on at his father's "Cudbear" works in Glasgow, and he was for a time associated with the Tennants of St. Rollox Chemical Works. In 1825 he patented a process for converting iron into steel by means of carburetted hydrogen, and he took part with Neilson and others in bringing the hot-blast into practical use. His name, however, is most widely known in connection with his invention for the water-proofing of cloth, the patent for which was taken in 1822. The business resulting from this invention developed rapidly, and was transferred to Manchester, where it still flourishes. McIntosh's presage of disaster to Napier's first sea-going steamer would naturally impress itself on the attention of the young engineer, as coming from one so eminent in the scientific world, and so much his senior. It is of interest to find Napier, forty years later, recalling this as an illustration of the distrust with which the idea of steam navigation on the open sea was regarded even six years after the success of the Comet. Another example, of still later date, appears in the following extract from Lord Broughton's Recollections of a Long Life: "September 12, 1823. Left Lord Grosvenor's and went from Liverpool to Glasgow in the Majestic steamboat. Sept 13, within six miles of Greenock the pipes of one of the boilers burst, and our vessel stopped immediately. Had this happened last night we must either have made for Ramsay harbour, or have been lost. I cannot think, after all, that the steam-boats are or can be made secure in a heavy sea off a lee shore. They are very large for their depth. Watt had no idea that his invention could be applied to the sea, and Napier of Glasgow, who made the sea engines, was laughed at, at first. Now three steamboats leave Liverpool for Glasgow every week. The breeze carried us to Greenock just as the Post Boy steamboat came up to tow us. We encountered a great many steamboats full of passengers, for the intercourse with Argyleshire and the Western Islands, and almost every place on the West Coast of Scotland, is now carried on by steam. This wonderful invention has changed the face of the country, and the manners and aspects of the people in some respects, and it is yet perhaps only in its infancy. The company on board our Majestic were mostly Scotch; intelligent, civil, and well-mannered. . . No people travel so much and to such purpose as the Scotch."