Fleeming Jenkin
Encyclopedia
Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin (ˈ; 1833–1885) was Professor
of Engineering
at the University of Edinburgh
, remarkable for his versatility. Known to the world as the inventor of telpherage, he was an electrician
and cable engineer, economist
, lecturer
, linguist, critic
, actor
, dramatist and artist
. His descendants include the Tory
MPs Patrick, Lord Jenkin of Roding
and Bernard Jenkin
.
, England
, his father, Captain Charles Jenkin, at that time being in the coast-guard service. His versatility was derived from his mother, Henrietta Camilla Jackson, a strong and energetic character who sang and sketched. Owing to her husband's frequent absence, she became responsible for Fleeming's education. She took him to the south of Scotland, where, chiefly at Barjarg, she taught him drawing
and allowed him to ride his pony on the moors. He went to school at Jedburgh
, Borders
, and afterwards to the Edinburgh Academy
, where he won many prizes. Among his school fellows were James Clerk Maxwell
and Peter Guthrie Tait
.
On his father's retirement in 1847, the family moved to Frankfurt
, partly from motives of economy and partly for the boy's education. Here Jenkin and his father spent a pleasant time together, sketching old castles, and observing the customs of the peasantry. At thirteen, Jenkin had produced a romance
of three hundred lines in heroic couplet
s, a novel
, and innumerable poems, none of which are now extant. He learned German
in Frankfurt and, on the family migrating to Paris
the following year, he studied French
and mathematics under a M. Deluc. While there, Jenkin witnessed the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848 and heard the first shot, describing the action in a letter written to an old schoolfellow s:Fleeming Jenkin account of the 1848 Revolution in Paris.
The Jenkins left Paris, and went to Genoa
, where they experienced another revolution, and Mrs. Jenkin, with her son and sister-in-law, had to seek the protection of a British vessel in the harbour, leaving their house stored with the property of their friends, and guarded by Captain Jenkin. At Genoa, Jenkin attended the University
, being its first protestant student. Padre Bancalari
, the professor of natural philosophy
, lectured on electromagnetism
, his physical laboratory being the best in Italy
. Jenkin took the degree of M.A.
with first-class honours, his special subject having been electromagnetism. The questions in the examinations were in Latin
, and had to be answered in Italian
. Fleeming also attended an art
school in the city, and gained a silver medal for a drawing from one of Raphael's cartoon
s. His holidays were spent in sketching, and his evenings in learning to play the piano
or, when permissible, at the theatre or opera-house. He had conceived a taste for acting
.
locomotive
shop under Philip Taylor of Marseille
but on the death of his Aunt Anna, who lived with them, Captain Jenkin took his family back to England, and settled in Manchester
, where the lad, in 1851, was apprenticed to mechanical engineering
at the works of William Fairbairn
, and from half-past eight in the morning till six at night had, as he says, to file and chip vigorously, in a moleskin suit, and infernally dirty.
At home he pursued his studies, and was for a time engaged with Dr. Bell in working out a geometrical method of arriving at the proportions of Ancient Greek architecture
. His stay in Manchester, though in striking contrast to his life in Genoa, was agreeable. He liked his work, had the good spirits of youth, and made some pleasant friends, one of them the author, Elizabeth Gaskell
. He was argumentative, and his mother tells of his having overcome a Consul at Genoa in a political discussion when he was only sixteen, simply from being well-informed on the subject, and honest. He is as true as steel, she writes, and for no one will he bend right or left... Do not fancy him a Bobadil; he is only a very true, candid boy. I am so glad he remains in all respects but information a great child.
On leaving Fairbairn's he was engaged for a time on a survey for the proposed Lukmanier Railway in Switzerland
, and in 1856 he entered Penn's engineering works at Greenwich
as a draughtsman
, being occupied on the plans of a vessel designed for the Crimean War
. He complained about the late hours, his rough comrades, and his humble lodgings, across a dirty green and through some half-built streets of two-storied houses.... Luckily, he adds, I am fond of my profession, or I could not stand this life. Jenkin had been his mother's pet until then, and felt the change from home more keenly for that reason. At night he read engineering and mathematics
, or Thomas Carlyle
and the poets, and cheered his drooping spirits with frequent trips to London to see his mother.
Another social pleasure was his visits to the house of Alfred Austin, a barrister
, who became permanent secretary to Her Majesty's Office of Works and Public Buildings, and retired in 1868 with the title of CB
. His wife, Eliza Barron, was the youngest daughter of a gentleman of Norwich
who, when a child, had been patted on the head, in his father's shop, by Dr Samuel Johnson
, while canvassing for Mr. Thrale. Jenkin had been introduced to the Austins by a letter from Mrs. Gaskell, and was charmed with the atmosphere of their choice home, where intellectual conversation was happily united with kind and courteous manners, without any pretence or affectation. Each of the Austins, says Stevenson, in his memoir of Jenkin, was full of high spirits; each practised something of the same repression; no sharp word was uttered in the house. The Austins were truly hospitable and
cultured, not merely so in form and appearance. It was a rare privilege and preservative for a solitary young man in Jenkin's position to have the entry into such elevating society, and he appreciated his good fortune.
Annie Austin, their only child, had been highly educated, and knew Greek
among other things. Though Jenkin loved and admired her parents, he did not at first care for Annie. Stevenson hints that she vanquished him by correcting a false quantity of his one day; he was the man to reflect over a correction, and admire the castigator. Jenkin was poor, but the liking of her parents for him gave him hope. He had entered the service of Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, who were engaged in the new work of submarine telegraphy, which satisfied his aspirations, and promised him a successful career. He therefore asked the Austins for leave to court their daughter. Mrs. Austin consented freely, and Mr. Austin only reserved the right to inquire into his character. Jenkin, overcome by their disinterestedness, exclaimed in one of his letters, Are these people the same as other people? Miss Austin seems to have resented his courtship of her parents first but the mother's favour, and his own spirited behaviour, saved him, and won her consent.
After leaving Penn's, Jenkin became a railroad engineer under Liddell and Gordon, and, in 1857, became engineer to R. S. Newall & Co. of Gateshead
who shared the work of making the first Atlantic
cable with Glass, Elliott & Co. of Greenwich. Jenkin was busy designing and fitting up machinery for cableships, and making electrical experiments. I am half crazy with work, he wrote to his fiancee; I like it though: it's like a good ball, the excitement carries you through. He wrote, My profession gives me all the excitement and interest I ever hope for.... I am at the works till ten, and sometimes till eleven. But I have a nice office to sit in, with a fire to myself, and bright brass scientific instruments all round me, and books to read, and experiments to make, and enjoy myself amazingly. I find the study of electricity so entertaining that I am apt to neglect my other work.... What shall I compare them to, he writes of some electrical experiments, a new song? or a Greek play?
for his first telegraph
cruise. It appears that earlier in 1855, Henry Brett
attempted to lay a cable across the Mediterranean between Cape Spartivento, in the south of Sardinia
, and a point near Bona, on the coast of Algeria
. It was a gutta-percha
cable of six wires or conductors, manufactured by Glass, Elliott & Co., a firm which afterwards combined with the Gutta-Percha Company and became the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company. Brett laid the cable from the Result, a sailing ship in tow, instead of a more manageable steamer. Meeting with 600 fathom
s (1100 m) of water
when twenty-five mile
s (45 km) from land, the cable ran out so fast that a tangled skein came up out of the hold and the line had to be severed. Having only 150 miles (280 km) on board to span the whole distance of 140 miles (260 km), he grappled the lost cable near the shore, raised it, and under-ran or passed it over the ship, for some twenty miles (35 km), then cut it, leaving the seaward end on the bottom. He then spliced the ship's cable to the shoreward end and resumed paying-out but after seventy miles (130 km) in all were laid, another rapid rush of cable took place, and Brett was obliged to cut and abandon the line.
Another attempt was made the following year, but with no better success. Brett then tried to lay a three-wire cable from the steamer Dutchman but owing to the deep water (in some places 1500 fathoms or 2700 m) when he came to a few miles from Galita, his destination on the Algerian coast, he had not enough cable to reach the land. He telegraphed to London for more cable to be made and sent out, while the ship remained there holding the end. After five days the cable parted, perhaps as a result of rubbing on the bottom.
It was to recover the lost cable of these expeditions that the Elba was got ready for sea. Jenkin had fitted her out the year before for laying the Cagliari
to Malta
and Corfu
cables but on this occasion she was better equipped. She had a new machine for picking up the cable, and a sheave or pulley at the bows for it to run over, both designed by Jenkin, together with a variety of wooden buoys, ropes, and chains. Liddell, assisted by F. C. Webb and Fleeming Jenkin, was in charge of the expedition. Jenkin had nothing to do with the electrical work, his care being the deck machinery for raising the cable but it was a responsible job. He reported the expedition in letters to Miss Austin and in diary entries s:Fleeming Jenkin accounts of the voyges of the Elba
During the latter part of the work much of the cable was found to be looped and twisted into 'kinks' from having been so slackly laid and two immense tangled skeins were raised on board, one by means of the mast-head and fore-yard tackle. Photographs of this ravelled cable were exhibited as a curiosity in the windows of Newall & Co.'s shop in The Strand
. By 5 July the whole of the six-wire cable had been recovered and a portion of the three-wire cable, the rest being abandoned as unfit for use, owing to its twisted condition. On the evening of the 2nd the first mate, while on the water unshackling a buoy, was struck in the back by a fluke of the ship's anchor as she drifted, and so severely injured that he lay for many weeks at Cagliari. Jenkin's knowledge of languages made him useful as an interpreter but, in mentioning this incident to Miss Austin, he writes, For no fortune would I be a doctor to witness these scenes continually. Pain is a terrible thing.
(later Sir William Thomson, and still later Lord Kelvin), his future friend and partner. Lewis Gordon
, of Newall & Co., subsequently the first professor of engineering in a British University, was in Glasgow
seeing Thomson's instruments for testing and signalling on the first Atlantic cable during the six weeks of its working. Gordon said he should like to show them to a young man of remarkable ability, engaged at their Birkenhead works. Jenkin was telegraphed for, arrived next morning, and spent a week in Glasgow, mostly in Thomson's classroom and laboratory at the old college. Thomson was struck with Jenkin's brightness, ability, thoroughness and determination to learn. I soon found,' he remarked, 'that thoroughness of honesty was as strongly engrained in the scientific as in the moral side of his character. Their talk was chiefly on the electric telegraph but Jenkin was eager, too, on the subject of physics
. After staying a week he returned to the factory but he began experiments and corresponded briskly with Thomson about cable work. Thomson seems to have infected his visitor during their brief contact with the magnetic force of his personality and enthusiasm.
On 26 February, during a four days' leave, Jenkin married Miss Austin at Northiam
, returning to his work the following Tuesday. He was strongly attached to his wife and his letters reveal a warmth of affection which a casual observer would never have suspected in him. In 1869 he wrote, People may write novels, and other people may write poems, but not a man or woman among them can say how happy a man can be who is desperately in love with his wife after ten years of marriage. Five weeks before his death he wrote to her, Your first letter from Bournemouth
gives me heavenly pleasure -- for which I thank Heaven and you, too, who are my heaven on earth.
island
s of Syros
and Crete
to Egypt
. He again reported in letters to his wife s:Fleeming Jenkin accounts of the voyges of the Elba
. For several years, business was bad.
says in his memoir of Jenkin that it was his principle to enjoy each day's happiness as it arises, like birds and children.
In 1863 his first son was born and the family moved to a cottage at Claygate
near Esher
. Though ill and poor, he kept up his self-confidence. The country, he wrote to his wife, will give us, please God, health and strength. I will love and cherish you more than ever. You shall go where you wish, you shall receive whom you wish, and as for money, you shall have that too. I cannot be mistaken. I have now measured myself with many men. I do not feel weak. I do not feel that I shall fail. In many things I have succeeded, and I will in this.... And meanwhile, the time of waiting, which, please Heaven, shall not be so long, shall also not be so bitter. Well, well, I promise much, and do not know at this moment how you and the dear child are. If he is but better, courage, my girl, for I see light.
He took to gardening
, without a natural liking for it, and soon became an ardent expert. He wrote reviews and lectured or amused himself in playing charades
and reading poetry. James Clerk Maxwell was among his visitors. During October 1860, he superintended the repairs of the Bona-Spartivento cable, revisiting Chia and Cagliari, then full of Garibaldi
's troops. The
cable, which had been broken by the anchors of coral
fishers, was grapnelled with difficulty. What rocks we did hook! writes Jenkin. No sooner was the grapnel down than the ship was anchored; and then came such a business: ship's engines going, deck engine thundering, belt slipping, tear of breaking ropes; actually breaking grapnels. It was always an hour or more before we could get the grapnels down again.
In 1865, on the birth of their second son, Mrs. Jenkin was very ill, and Jenkin, after running two miles for a doctor, knelt by her bedside during the night in a draught. He suffered from rheumatism
and sciatica
ever afterwards. It nearly disabled him while laying the Lowestoft to Norderney cable for Paul Reuter
in 1866. This line was designed by Forde & Jenkin, manufactured by Messrs. W. T. Henley & Co., and laid by the Caroline and William Cory. Clara Volkman, a niece of Reuter, sent the first message, with C. F. Varley
holding her hand.
improved. The partnership began to pay and he was selected to fill the newly established chair of engineering at Edinburgh University. He wrote to his wife: With you in the garden (at Claygate), with Austin in the coach-house, with pretty songs in the little low white room, with the moonlight in the dear room upstairs--ah! it was perfect; but the long walk, wondering, pondering, fearing, scheming, and the dusty jolting railway, and the horrid fusty office, with its endless disappointments, they are well gone. It is well enough to fight, and scheme, and bustle about in the eager crowd here (in London) for a while now and then; but not for a lifetime. What I have now is just perfect. Study for winter, action for summer, lovely country for recreation, a pleasant town for talk.
The following June he was on board the Great Eastern
while she laid the French Atlantic cable from Brest
to Saint-Pierre
. Among his shipmates were Sir William Thomson, Sir James Anderson, C. F. Varley, Latimer Clark and Willoughby Smith
. Jenkin's sketches of Clark and Varley are remarkable. At Saint-Pierre they arrived in a fog which lifted to show their consort, the William Cory, straight ahead, and the Gulnare signalling a welcome. Jenkin observed that the whole island was electrified by the battery at the telegraph station.
for tracing a cablegram in ink instead of merely flashing it by the moving ray of the mirror galvanometer
, was introduced on long cables and became a source of profit to Jenkin and Varley as well as to Thomson, its inventor.
In 1873 Thomson and Jenkin were engineers for the Western and Brazilian cable. It was manufactured by Hooper & Co., of Millwall
and the wire was coated with india rubber, then a new insulator. The Hooper left Plymouth
in June, and after touching at Madeira
, where Thomson was up sounding with his special toy (the pianoforte wire) at half-past three in the morning, they reached Pernambuco
by the beginning of August, and laid a cable to Pará
.
During the next two years the Brazil
ian system was connected to the West Indies and the Río de la Plata
but Jenkin was not present on the expeditions. While engaged in this work, the ill-fated La Plata, carrying cable from the Siemens AG
company to Montevideo
, sank in a cyclone
off Ushant
with the loss of nearly all her crew. The Mackay-Bennett Atlantic cables were also laid under their charge.
curves therein. His treatment extended beyond earlier treatments on the Continent (not apparently known by him), complete with comparative statics
(a change in equilibrium from a shifts of a curve), welfare analysis
, application to the labor market, and market-period and long-run distinctions. It was later popularized by Alfred Marshall
and remains arguably the most famous graphic in economics.
the first to apply the absolute methods of measurement introduced by Gauss and Weber. He also investigated the laws of electric
signals in submarine cables. As Secretary to the British Association Committee on Electrical Standards he played a leading part in providing
electricians with practical standards of measurement. His Cantor lectures on submarine cable
s, and his treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, published in 1873, were notable at the time, including the latest developments in the subject. He was associated with Thomson in an ingenious 'curb-key' for sending signals
automatically through a long cable; but it was never adopted. His most important invention was telpherage, a means of transporting goods and passengers to a distance by electric panniers
supported on a wire or conductor, which supplied them with electricity. It was patented in 1882, and Jenkin spent his last years on this
work, expecting great results from it; but before the first public line was opened for traffic at Glynde, in Sussex, he was dead.
In mechanical engineering his graphical methods of calculating strains in bridges, and determining the efficiency of mechanism, were valuable, and won him the Keith Gold Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh
. He also founded the Sanitary Protection Association, for the supervision of houses with regard to health. In his spare time Jenkin wrote papers on a wide variety of subjects. He attacked Darwin's theory of development, and showed its inadequacy, especially in demanding more time than the physicist could grant for the age of the habitable world. Darwin confessed that some of his arguments were convincing; and Munro, the scholar, complimented him for his paper The Atomic Theory of Lucretius. In 1878 he constructed a phonograph
from the newspaper reports of this new invention, and lectured on it in Edinburgh, then employed it to study the nature of vowel and consonantal sounds. An
interesting paper on 'Rhythm in English Verse,' was also published by him in the Saturday Review for 1883.
He could draw a portrait with astonishing rapidity, and had been known to stop a passer-by for a few minutes and sketch her on the
spot. His artistic side also shows itself in a paper on 'Artist and Critic,' in which he defines the difference between the mechanical and fine arts. 'In mechanical arts,' he says, 'the craftsman uses his skill to produce something useful, but (except in the rare case when he is at
liberty to choose what he shall produce) his sole merit lies in skill. In the fine arts the student uses skill to produce something beautiful.
He is free to choose what that something shall be, and the layman claims that he may and must judge the artist chiefly by the value in beauty of
the thing done. Artistic skill contributes to beauty, or it would not be skill; but beauty is the result of many elements, and the nobler the
art the lower is the rank which skill takes among them.'
Jenkin was a clear and graphic writer. He read selectively, preferring the story of David, the Odyssey
, the Arcadia
, the saga of Burnt Njal
, and the Grand Cyrus
. Aeschylus
, Sophocles
, Shakespeare
, Ariosto,
Boccaccio
, Sir Walter Scott, Dumas
, Charles Dickens
, William Makepeace Thackeray
, and George Eliot
were some
of his favourite authors. He was a rapid, fluent talker. Some of his sayings were shrewd and sharp; but he was sometimes aggressive. 'People admire what is pretty in an ugly thing,' he used to say 'not the ugly thing.' A lady once said to him she would never be happy again. 'What does that signify?' cried Jenkin ; 'we are not here to be happy, but to be good.' On a friend remarking
that Salvini's acting in Othello made him want to pray, Jenkin answered, 'That is prayer.'
Though admired and liked by his intimates, Jenkin was never popular with
associates. His manner was hard, rasping, and unsympathetic. 'Whatever
virtues he possessed,' says Mr. Stevenson, 'he could never count on
being civil.' He showed so much courtesy to his wife, however, that a
Styrian peasant who observed it spread a report in the village that Mrs.
Jenkin, a great lady, had married beneath her. At the Savile Club
, in
London, he was known as the 'man who dines here and goes up to
Scotland.' Jenkin was conscious of this churlishness, and latterly
improved. 'All my life,' he wrote,'I have talked a good deal, with the
almost unfailing result of making people sick of the sound of my tongue.
It appeared to me that I had various things to say, and I had no
malevolent feelings; but, nevertheless, the result was that expressed
above. Well, lately some change has happened. If I talk to a person
one day they must have me the next. Faces light up when they see me.
"Ah! I say, come here." " Come and dine with me." It's the most
preposterous thing I ever experienced. It is curiously pleasant.'
Jenkin was a good father, joining in his children's play as well as
directing their studies. The boys used to wait outside his office for
him at the close of business hours; and a story is told of little
Frewen, the second son, entering in to him one day, while he was at
work, and holding out a toy crane he was making, with the request, 'Papa
you might finiss windin' this for me, I'm so very busy to-day.' He was
fond of animals too, and his dog Plate regularly accompanied him to the
University. But, as he used to say, 'It's a cold home where a dog is
the only representative of a child.'
In the Highlands
, Jenkin learned to love the Highland character and ways of life. He shot, rode and swam well, and taught his boys athletic exercises, boating, salmon
fishing, and so on. He learned to dance a Highland reel, and began the study of Gaelic
; but it proved too difficult even for Jenkin. Once he took his family to Alt Aussee, in the Steiermark (Styria
), where he hunted chamois, won a prize for shooting at the Schützenfest
, learned the local dialect, sketched the neighbourhood, and danced the steirischen Ländler with the peasants.
His parents and parents-in-law had come to live in Edinburgh, but they all died within ten months of each other. Jenkin had showed great devotion to them in their illnesses, and was worn out with grief and watching. His telpherage, too, had given him considerable anxiety; and his mother's illness, which affected her mind, had
caused him fear. He was planning a holiday to Italy with his wife in order to recuperate, and had a minor operation on his foot, which resulted in blood poisoning. There seemed to be no danger, and his wife was reading aloud to him as he lay in bed, when his mind began to wander. He probably never regained his senses before he died.
At one period of his life Jenkin was a freethinker
, holding all dogmas as 'mere blind struggles to express the inexpressible.' Nevertheless, as time went on he returned to Christianity
. 'The longer I live,' he wrote, 'the more convinced I become of a direct care by God
--which is reasonably impossible—but
there it is.' In his last year he took Communion
.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
, remarkable for his versatility. Known to the world as the inventor of telpherage, he was an electrician
Electrician
An electrician is a tradesman specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, stationary machines and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance and repair of existing electrical infrastructure. Electricians may also...
and cable engineer, economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
, lecturer
Lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
, linguist, critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, dramatist and artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
. His descendants include the Tory
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MPs Patrick, Lord Jenkin of Roding
Patrick Jenkin, Baron Jenkin of Roding
Charles Patrick Fleeming Jenkin, Baron Jenkin of Roding, PC is a British Conservative politician and the great-grandson of the scientist Fleeming Jenkin....
and Bernard Jenkin
Bernard Jenkin
Bernard Christison Jenkin is a politician in the United Kingdom, and the current Member of Parliament for Harwich and North Essex...
.
Background and childhood
Generally called Fleeming Jenkin, after Admiral Fleeming, one of his father's patrons, he was born to an old and eccentric family, in a government building near Dungeness, KentKent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, his father, Captain Charles Jenkin, at that time being in the coast-guard service. His versatility was derived from his mother, Henrietta Camilla Jackson, a strong and energetic character who sang and sketched. Owing to her husband's frequent absence, she became responsible for Fleeming's education. She took him to the south of Scotland, where, chiefly at Barjarg, she taught him drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
and allowed him to ride his pony on the moors. He went to school at Jedburgh
Jedburgh
Jedburgh is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and historically in Roxburghshire.-Location:Jedburgh lies on the Jed Water, a tributary of the River Teviot, it is only ten miles from the border with England and is dominated by the substantial ruins of Jedburgh Abbey...
, Borders
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...
, and afterwards to the Edinburgh Academy
Edinburgh Academy
The Edinburgh Academy is an independent school which was opened in 1824. The original building, in Henderson Row on the northern fringe of the New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland, is now part of the Senior School...
, where he won many prizes. Among his school fellows were James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
and Peter Guthrie Tait
Peter Guthrie Tait
Peter Guthrie Tait FRSE was a Scottish mathematical physicist, best known for the seminal energy physics textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which he co-wrote with Kelvin, and his early investigations into knot theory, which contributed to the eventual formation of topology as a mathematical...
.
On his father's retirement in 1847, the family moved to Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, partly from motives of economy and partly for the boy's education. Here Jenkin and his father spent a pleasant time together, sketching old castles, and observing the customs of the peasantry. At thirteen, Jenkin had produced a romance
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
of three hundred lines in heroic couplet
Heroic couplet
A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used for epic and narrative poetry; it refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines. The rhyme is always masculine. Use of the heroic couplet was first pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in...
s, a novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, and innumerable poems, none of which are now extant. He learned German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
in Frankfurt and, on the family migrating to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
the following year, he studied French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and mathematics under a M. Deluc. While there, Jenkin witnessed the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848 and heard the first shot, describing the action in a letter written to an old schoolfellow s:Fleeming Jenkin account of the 1848 Revolution in Paris.
The Jenkins left Paris, and went to Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, where they experienced another revolution, and Mrs. Jenkin, with her son and sister-in-law, had to seek the protection of a British vessel in the harbour, leaving their house stored with the property of their friends, and guarded by Captain Jenkin. At Genoa, Jenkin attended the University
University of Genoa
The University of Genoa is one of the largest universities in Italy.Located in Liguria on the Italian Riviera, the university was founded in 1471. It currently has about 40,000 students, 1,800 teaching and research staff and about 1,580 administrative staff.- Campus :The University of Genoa is...
, being its first protestant student. Padre Bancalari
Padre Bancalari
Padre Bancalari was professor of natural philosophy at the University of Genoa. In 1847, he discovered that flames were diamagnetic by showing that there were repulsed by a strong magnetic field....
, the professor of natural philosophy
Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...
, lectured on electromagnetism
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
, his physical laboratory being the best in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Jenkin took the degree of M.A.
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
with first-class honours, his special subject having been electromagnetism. The questions in the examinations were in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, and had to be answered in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
. Fleeming also attended an art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
school in the city, and gained a silver medal for a drawing from one of Raphael's cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s. His holidays were spent in sketching, and his evenings in learning to play the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
or, when permissible, at the theatre or opera-house. He had conceived a taste for acting
Acting
Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play....
.
Training as engineer and artist
In 1850, Jenkin spent some time in a GenoeseGenoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
shop under Philip Taylor of Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
but on the death of his Aunt Anna, who lived with them, Captain Jenkin took his family back to England, and settled in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, where the lad, in 1851, was apprenticed to mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
at the works of William Fairbairn
William Fairbairn
Sir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder.-Early career:...
, and from half-past eight in the morning till six at night had, as he says, to file and chip vigorously, in a moleskin suit, and infernally dirty.
At home he pursued his studies, and was for a time engaged with Dr. Bell in working out a geometrical method of arriving at the proportions of Ancient Greek architecture
Architecture of Ancient Greece
The architecture of Ancient Greece is the architecture produced by the Greek-speaking people whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland and Peloponnesus, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Asia Minor and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, with the earliest...
. His stay in Manchester, though in striking contrast to his life in Genoa, was agreeable. He liked his work, had the good spirits of youth, and made some pleasant friends, one of them the author, Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...
. He was argumentative, and his mother tells of his having overcome a Consul at Genoa in a political discussion when he was only sixteen, simply from being well-informed on the subject, and honest. He is as true as steel, she writes, and for no one will he bend right or left... Do not fancy him a Bobadil; he is only a very true, candid boy. I am so glad he remains in all respects but information a great child.
On leaving Fairbairn's he was engaged for a time on a survey for the proposed Lukmanier Railway in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and in 1856 he entered Penn's engineering works at Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
as a draughtsman
Technical drawing
Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
, being occupied on the plans of a vessel designed for the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
. He complained about the late hours, his rough comrades, and his humble lodgings, across a dirty green and through some half-built streets of two-storied houses.... Luckily, he adds, I am fond of my profession, or I could not stand this life. Jenkin had been his mother's pet until then, and felt the change from home more keenly for that reason. At night he read engineering and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, or Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
and the poets, and cheered his drooping spirits with frequent trips to London to see his mother.
Another social pleasure was his visits to the house of Alfred Austin, a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, who became permanent secretary to Her Majesty's Office of Works and Public Buildings, and retired in 1868 with the title of CB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
. His wife, Eliza Barron, was the youngest daughter of a gentleman of Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
who, when a child, had been patted on the head, in his father's shop, by Dr Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
, while canvassing for Mr. Thrale. Jenkin had been introduced to the Austins by a letter from Mrs. Gaskell, and was charmed with the atmosphere of their choice home, where intellectual conversation was happily united with kind and courteous manners, without any pretence or affectation. Each of the Austins, says Stevenson, in his memoir of Jenkin, was full of high spirits; each practised something of the same repression; no sharp word was uttered in the house. The Austins were truly hospitable and
cultured, not merely so in form and appearance. It was a rare privilege and preservative for a solitary young man in Jenkin's position to have the entry into such elevating society, and he appreciated his good fortune.
Annie Austin, their only child, had been highly educated, and knew Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
among other things. Though Jenkin loved and admired her parents, he did not at first care for Annie. Stevenson hints that she vanquished him by correcting a false quantity of his one day; he was the man to reflect over a correction, and admire the castigator. Jenkin was poor, but the liking of her parents for him gave him hope. He had entered the service of Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, who were engaged in the new work of submarine telegraphy, which satisfied his aspirations, and promised him a successful career. He therefore asked the Austins for leave to court their daughter. Mrs. Austin consented freely, and Mr. Austin only reserved the right to inquire into his character. Jenkin, overcome by their disinterestedness, exclaimed in one of his letters, Are these people the same as other people? Miss Austin seems to have resented his courtship of her parents first but the mother's favour, and his own spirited behaviour, saved him, and won her consent.
After leaving Penn's, Jenkin became a railroad engineer under Liddell and Gordon, and, in 1857, became engineer to R. S. Newall & Co. of Gateshead
Gateshead
Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England and is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Historically a part of County Durham, it lies on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne and together they form the urban core of Tyneside...
who shared the work of making the first Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
cable with Glass, Elliott & Co. of Greenwich. Jenkin was busy designing and fitting up machinery for cableships, and making electrical experiments. I am half crazy with work, he wrote to his fiancee; I like it though: it's like a good ball, the excitement carries you through. He wrote, My profession gives me all the excitement and interest I ever hope for.... I am at the works till ten, and sometimes till eleven. But I have a nice office to sit in, with a fire to myself, and bright brass scientific instruments all round me, and books to read, and experiments to make, and enjoy myself amazingly. I find the study of electricity so entertaining that I am apt to neglect my other work.... What shall I compare them to, he writes of some electrical experiments, a new song? or a Greek play?
First voyage
In the spring of 1855, he was fitting out the S.S. Elba at BirkenheadBirkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
for his first telegraph
Telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
cruise. It appears that earlier in 1855, Henry Brett
Henry Brett
-Biography:Henry Brett, born 20 October 1974, attended Dragon School for young dragons and the European School in Oxford, but left school at age of 16 to start his career as a polo player....
attempted to lay a cable across the Mediterranean between Cape Spartivento, in the south of Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
, and a point near Bona, on the coast of Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
. It was a gutta-percha
Gutta-percha
Gutta-percha is a genus of tropical trees native to Southeast Asia and northern Australasia, from Taiwan south to the Malay Peninsula and east to the Solomon Islands. The same term is used to refer to an inelastic natural latex produced from the sap of these trees, particularly from the species...
cable of six wires or conductors, manufactured by Glass, Elliott & Co., a firm which afterwards combined with the Gutta-Percha Company and became the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company. Brett laid the cable from the Result, a sailing ship in tow, instead of a more manageable steamer. Meeting with 600 fathom
Fathom
A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems, used especially for measuring the depth of water.There are 2 yards in an imperial or U.S. fathom...
s (1100 m) of water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
when twenty-five mile
Nautical mile
The nautical mile is a unit of length that is about one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian, but is approximately one minute of arc of longitude only at the equator...
s (45 km) from land, the cable ran out so fast that a tangled skein came up out of the hold and the line had to be severed. Having only 150 miles (280 km) on board to span the whole distance of 140 miles (260 km), he grappled the lost cable near the shore, raised it, and under-ran or passed it over the ship, for some twenty miles (35 km), then cut it, leaving the seaward end on the bottom. He then spliced the ship's cable to the shoreward end and resumed paying-out but after seventy miles (130 km) in all were laid, another rapid rush of cable took place, and Brett was obliged to cut and abandon the line.
Another attempt was made the following year, but with no better success. Brett then tried to lay a three-wire cable from the steamer Dutchman but owing to the deep water (in some places 1500 fathoms or 2700 m) when he came to a few miles from Galita, his destination on the Algerian coast, he had not enough cable to reach the land. He telegraphed to London for more cable to be made and sent out, while the ship remained there holding the end. After five days the cable parted, perhaps as a result of rubbing on the bottom.
It was to recover the lost cable of these expeditions that the Elba was got ready for sea. Jenkin had fitted her out the year before for laying the Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
to Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
and Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
cables but on this occasion she was better equipped. She had a new machine for picking up the cable, and a sheave or pulley at the bows for it to run over, both designed by Jenkin, together with a variety of wooden buoys, ropes, and chains. Liddell, assisted by F. C. Webb and Fleeming Jenkin, was in charge of the expedition. Jenkin had nothing to do with the electrical work, his care being the deck machinery for raising the cable but it was a responsible job. He reported the expedition in letters to Miss Austin and in diary entries s:Fleeming Jenkin accounts of the voyges of the Elba
During the latter part of the work much of the cable was found to be looped and twisted into 'kinks' from having been so slackly laid and two immense tangled skeins were raised on board, one by means of the mast-head and fore-yard tackle. Photographs of this ravelled cable were exhibited as a curiosity in the windows of Newall & Co.'s shop in The Strand
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
. By 5 July the whole of the six-wire cable had been recovered and a portion of the three-wire cable, the rest being abandoned as unfit for use, owing to its twisted condition. On the evening of the 2nd the first mate, while on the water unshackling a buoy, was struck in the back by a fluke of the ship's anchor as she drifted, and so severely injured that he lay for many weeks at Cagliari. Jenkin's knowledge of languages made him useful as an interpreter but, in mentioning this incident to Miss Austin, he writes, For no fortune would I be a doctor to witness these scenes continually. Pain is a terrible thing.
Future partners
Early in 1859 he met William ThomsonWilliam Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, PRSE, was a mathematical physicist and engineer. At the University of Glasgow he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging...
(later Sir William Thomson, and still later Lord Kelvin), his future friend and partner. Lewis Gordon
Lewis Gordon
Lewis Ricardo Gordon is an American philosopher who works in the areas of Africana philosophy, philosophy of human and life sciences, phenomenology, philosophy of existence, social and political theory, postcolonial thought, theories of race and racism, philosophies of liberation, aesthetics,...
, of Newall & Co., subsequently the first professor of engineering in a British University, was in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
seeing Thomson's instruments for testing and signalling on the first Atlantic cable during the six weeks of its working. Gordon said he should like to show them to a young man of remarkable ability, engaged at their Birkenhead works. Jenkin was telegraphed for, arrived next morning, and spent a week in Glasgow, mostly in Thomson's classroom and laboratory at the old college. Thomson was struck with Jenkin's brightness, ability, thoroughness and determination to learn. I soon found,' he remarked, 'that thoroughness of honesty was as strongly engrained in the scientific as in the moral side of his character. Their talk was chiefly on the electric telegraph but Jenkin was eager, too, on the subject of physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
. After staying a week he returned to the factory but he began experiments and corresponded briskly with Thomson about cable work. Thomson seems to have infected his visitor during their brief contact with the magnetic force of his personality and enthusiasm.
On 26 February, during a four days' leave, Jenkin married Miss Austin at Northiam
Northiam
Northiam is a village and civil parish in the Rother District of East Sussex, England. The village is located thirteen miles north of Hastings in the valley of the River Rother. The main road that passes through it is the A28 which goes to Canterbury and Hastings.-Governance:The lowest level of...
, returning to his work the following Tuesday. He was strongly attached to his wife and his letters reveal a warmth of affection which a casual observer would never have suspected in him. In 1869 he wrote, People may write novels, and other people may write poems, but not a man or woman among them can say how happy a man can be who is desperately in love with his wife after ten years of marriage. Five weeks before his death he wrote to her, Your first letter from Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
gives me heavenly pleasure -- for which I thank Heaven and you, too, who are my heaven on earth.
Second voyage
During the summer he took another telegraph cruise in the Mediterranean. This time the Elba was to lay a cable from the GreekGreece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
s of Syros
Syros
Syros , or Siros or Syra is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is located south-east of Athens. The area of the island is . The largest towns are Ermoupoli, Ano Syros, and Vari. Ermoupoli is the capital of the island and the Cyclades...
and Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. He again reported in letters to his wife s:Fleeming Jenkin accounts of the voyges of the Elba
Partnership with Forde
In 1861, Jenkin left the service of Newall & Co. and entered into partnership with H. C. Forde, who had acted as engineer under the British Government for the Malta-Alexandria cable, and was now practising as a civil engineerCivil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
. For several years, business was bad.
Domestic life
With a young family coming, it was an anxious time but he bore his troubles lightly. Robert Louis StevensonRobert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
says in his memoir of Jenkin that it was his principle to enjoy each day's happiness as it arises, like birds and children.
In 1863 his first son was born and the family moved to a cottage at Claygate
Claygate
Claygate is a village in the English county of Surrey, approximately south west of London and within the Metropolitan Green Belt.It is primarily a residential area but with offices, farms and two shopping areas with a supermarket, five pubs and numerous restaurants...
near Esher
Esher
Esher is a town in the Surrey borough of Elmbridge in South East England near the River Mole. It is a very prosperous part of the Greater London Urban Area, largely suburban in character, and is situated 14.1 miles south west of Charing Cross....
. Though ill and poor, he kept up his self-confidence. The country, he wrote to his wife, will give us, please God, health and strength. I will love and cherish you more than ever. You shall go where you wish, you shall receive whom you wish, and as for money, you shall have that too. I cannot be mistaken. I have now measured myself with many men. I do not feel weak. I do not feel that I shall fail. In many things I have succeeded, and I will in this.... And meanwhile, the time of waiting, which, please Heaven, shall not be so long, shall also not be so bitter. Well, well, I promise much, and do not know at this moment how you and the dear child are. If he is but better, courage, my girl, for I see light.
He took to gardening
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
, without a natural liking for it, and soon became an ardent expert. He wrote reviews and lectured or amused himself in playing charades
Charades
Charades or charade is a word guessing game. In the form most played today, it is an acting game in which one player acts out a word or phrase, often by pantomiming similar-sounding words, and the other players guess the word or phrase. The idea is to use physical rather than verbal language to...
and reading poetry. James Clerk Maxwell was among his visitors. During October 1860, he superintended the repairs of the Bona-Spartivento cable, revisiting Chia and Cagliari, then full of Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...
's troops. The
cable, which had been broken by the anchors of coral
Coral (precious)
Precious coral or red coral is the common name given to Corallium rubrum and several related species of marine coral. The distinguishing characteristic of precious corals is their durable and intensely colored red or pink skeleton, which is used for making jewelry.-Habitat:Red corals grow on rocky...
fishers, was grapnelled with difficulty. What rocks we did hook! writes Jenkin. No sooner was the grapnel down than the ship was anchored; and then came such a business: ship's engines going, deck engine thundering, belt slipping, tear of breaking ropes; actually breaking grapnels. It was always an hour or more before we could get the grapnels down again.
In 1865, on the birth of their second son, Mrs. Jenkin was very ill, and Jenkin, after running two miles for a doctor, knelt by her bedside during the night in a draught. He suffered from rheumatism
Rheumatism
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology.-Terminology:...
and sciatica
Sciatica
Sciatica is a set of symptoms including pain that may be caused by general compression or irritation of one of five spinal nerve roots that give rise to each sciatic nerve, or by compression or irritation of the left or right or both sciatic nerves. The pain is felt in the lower back, buttock, or...
ever afterwards. It nearly disabled him while laying the Lowestoft to Norderney cable for Paul Reuter
Paul Reuter
Paul Julius Freiherr von Reuter was a German entrepreneur and later naturalized British citizen...
in 1866. This line was designed by Forde & Jenkin, manufactured by Messrs. W. T. Henley & Co., and laid by the Caroline and William Cory. Clara Volkman, a niece of Reuter, sent the first message, with C. F. Varley
C. F. Varley
Cromwell Fleetwood Varley was an English engineer, particularly associated with the development of the electric telegraph and the transatlantic telegraph cable.-Family:...
holding her hand.
Professor at London and Edinburgh
In 1866, Jenkin was appointed as professor of engineering at University College, London. Two years later his prospects suddenlyimproved. The partnership began to pay and he was selected to fill the newly established chair of engineering at Edinburgh University. He wrote to his wife: With you in the garden (at Claygate), with Austin in the coach-house, with pretty songs in the little low white room, with the moonlight in the dear room upstairs--ah! it was perfect; but the long walk, wondering, pondering, fearing, scheming, and the dusty jolting railway, and the horrid fusty office, with its endless disappointments, they are well gone. It is well enough to fight, and scheme, and bustle about in the eager crowd here (in London) for a while now and then; but not for a lifetime. What I have now is just perfect. Study for winter, action for summer, lovely country for recreation, a pleasant town for talk.
The following June he was on board the Great Eastern
SS Great Eastern
SS Great Eastern was an iron sailing steam ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and built by J. Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall on the River Thames, London. She was by far the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers around the...
while she laid the French Atlantic cable from Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
to Saint-Pierre
Saint-Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France. It is the only remnant of the former colonial empire of New France that remains under French control....
. Among his shipmates were Sir William Thomson, Sir James Anderson, C. F. Varley, Latimer Clark and Willoughby Smith
Willoughby Smith
Willoughby Smith was an English electrical engineer who discovered the photoconductivity of the element selenium...
. Jenkin's sketches of Clark and Varley are remarkable. At Saint-Pierre they arrived in a fog which lifted to show their consort, the William Cory, straight ahead, and the Gulnare signalling a welcome. Jenkin observed that the whole island was electrified by the battery at the telegraph station.
Partnership with Thomson and Varley
Jenkin's position at Edinburgh led to a partnership in cable work with Varley and Thomson, whom he always admired. Jenkin's practical and businesslike abilities were of assistance to Thomson, relieving him of routine and sparing his time for other work. In 1870 the siphon recorderSiphon recorder
The syphon or siphon recorder is an item of telecommunications equipment invented by William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin in 1858. It was used to automatically record the receipt of a telegraph message, as a wiggling ink line on a roll of paper tape...
for tracing a cablegram in ink instead of merely flashing it by the moving ray of the mirror galvanometer
Mirror galvanometer
thumb|right|200px|A mirror galvanometerA mirror galvanometer is a mechanical meter that senses electric current, except that instead of moving a needle, it moves a mirror. The mirror reflects a beam of light, which projects onto a meter, and acts as a long, weightless, massless pointer...
, was introduced on long cables and became a source of profit to Jenkin and Varley as well as to Thomson, its inventor.
In 1873 Thomson and Jenkin were engineers for the Western and Brazilian cable. It was manufactured by Hooper & Co., of Millwall
Millwall
Millwall is an area in London, on the western side of the Isle of Dogs, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the south of the developments at West India Docks, including Canary Wharf.-History:...
and the wire was coated with india rubber, then a new insulator. The Hooper left Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
in June, and after touching at Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
, where Thomson was up sounding with his special toy (the pianoforte wire) at half-past three in the morning, they reached Pernambuco
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...
by the beginning of August, and laid a cable to Pará
Pará
Pará is a state in the north of Brazil. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Belém.Pará is the most populous state...
.
During the next two years the Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian system was connected to the West Indies and the Río de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
but Jenkin was not present on the expeditions. While engaged in this work, the ill-fated La Plata, carrying cable from the Siemens AG
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
company to Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, sank in a cyclone
Cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth. This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth. Most large-scale...
off Ushant
Ushant
Ushant is an island at the south-western end of the English Channel which marks the north-westernmost point of metropolitan France. It belongs to Brittany and is in the traditional region of Bro-Leon. Administratively, Ushant is a commune in the Finistère department...
with the loss of nearly all her crew. The Mackay-Bennett Atlantic cables were also laid under their charge.
Pioneer of the supply and demand graphic
In 1870, Jenkin published the essay "On the Graphical Representation of the Laws of Supply and Demandand their Application to Labour," in which he "introduced the diagrammatic method into the English economic literature" — the first published drawing of supply and demandSupply and demand
Supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers will equal the quantity supplied by producers , resulting in an...
curves therein. His treatment extended beyond earlier treatments on the Continent (not apparently known by him), complete with comparative statics
Comparative statics
In economics, comparative statics is the comparison of two different economic outcomes, before and after a change in some underlying exogenous parameter....
(a change in equilibrium from a shifts of a curve), welfare analysis
Welfare economics
Welfare economics is a branch of economics that uses microeconomic techniques to evaluate economic well-being, especially relative to competitive general equilibrium within an economy as to economic efficiency and the resulting income distribution associated with it...
, application to the labor market, and market-period and long-run distinctions. It was later popularized by Alfred Marshall
Alfred Marshall
Alfred Marshall was an Englishman and one of the most influential economists of his time. His book, Principles of Economics , was the dominant economic textbook in England for many years...
and remains arguably the most famous graphic in economics.
Personality and assessment
Jenkin was a clear, fluent speaker, and a successful teacher. He is described as being of medium height, and very plain, with an unimposing manner. His class was always in good order, for he instantly spotted and disciplined anyone who misbehaved. His experimental work was not strikingly original. At Birkenhead he made some accurate measurements of the electrical properties of materials used in submarine cables. Sir William Thomson noted that he wasthe first to apply the absolute methods of measurement introduced by Gauss and Weber. He also investigated the laws of electric
signals in submarine cables. As Secretary to the British Association Committee on Electrical Standards he played a leading part in providing
electricians with practical standards of measurement. His Cantor lectures on submarine cable
Submarine cable
Submarine cable may refer to:*Submarine communications cable*Submarine power cable...
s, and his treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, published in 1873, were notable at the time, including the latest developments in the subject. He was associated with Thomson in an ingenious 'curb-key' for sending signals
automatically through a long cable; but it was never adopted. His most important invention was telpherage, a means of transporting goods and passengers to a distance by electric panniers
supported on a wire or conductor, which supplied them with electricity. It was patented in 1882, and Jenkin spent his last years on this
work, expecting great results from it; but before the first public line was opened for traffic at Glynde, in Sussex, he was dead.
In mechanical engineering his graphical methods of calculating strains in bridges, and determining the efficiency of mechanism, were valuable, and won him the Keith Gold Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
. He also founded the Sanitary Protection Association, for the supervision of houses with regard to health. In his spare time Jenkin wrote papers on a wide variety of subjects. He attacked Darwin's theory of development, and showed its inadequacy, especially in demanding more time than the physicist could grant for the age of the habitable world. Darwin confessed that some of his arguments were convincing; and Munro, the scholar, complimented him for his paper The Atomic Theory of Lucretius. In 1878 he constructed a phonograph
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
from the newspaper reports of this new invention, and lectured on it in Edinburgh, then employed it to study the nature of vowel and consonantal sounds. An
interesting paper on 'Rhythm in English Verse,' was also published by him in the Saturday Review for 1883.
He could draw a portrait with astonishing rapidity, and had been known to stop a passer-by for a few minutes and sketch her on the
spot. His artistic side also shows itself in a paper on 'Artist and Critic,' in which he defines the difference between the mechanical and fine arts. 'In mechanical arts,' he says, 'the craftsman uses his skill to produce something useful, but (except in the rare case when he is at
liberty to choose what he shall produce) his sole merit lies in skill. In the fine arts the student uses skill to produce something beautiful.
He is free to choose what that something shall be, and the layman claims that he may and must judge the artist chiefly by the value in beauty of
the thing done. Artistic skill contributes to beauty, or it would not be skill; but beauty is the result of many elements, and the nobler the
art the lower is the rank which skill takes among them.'
Jenkin was a clear and graphic writer. He read selectively, preferring the story of David, the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
, the Arcadia
Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, also known simply as the Arcadia or the Old Arcadia, is a long prose work by Sir Philip Sidney written towards the end of the sixteenth century, and later published in several versions. It is Sidney's most ambitious literary work, by far, and as significant in...
, the saga of Burnt Njal
Njál's saga
Njáls saga is one of the sagas of Icelanders. The most prominent characters are the friends Njáll Þorgeirsson, a lawyer and a sage, and Gunnarr Hámundarson, a formidable warrior...
, and the Grand Cyrus
Artamène
Artamène, or Cyrus the Great is a novel in ten volumes by siblings Madeleine and Georges de Scudéry. At over 2,100,000 words, it is considered the longest novel ever written, with the possible exception of Henry Darger's unpublished The Story of the Vivian Girls....
. Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
, Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
, Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, Ariosto,
Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
, Sir Walter Scott, Dumas
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
, Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
, and George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
were some
of his favourite authors. He was a rapid, fluent talker. Some of his sayings were shrewd and sharp; but he was sometimes aggressive. 'People admire what is pretty in an ugly thing,' he used to say 'not the ugly thing.' A lady once said to him she would never be happy again. 'What does that signify?' cried Jenkin ; 'we are not here to be happy, but to be good.' On a friend remarking
that Salvini's acting in Othello made him want to pray, Jenkin answered, 'That is prayer.'
Though admired and liked by his intimates, Jenkin was never popular with
associates. His manner was hard, rasping, and unsympathetic. 'Whatever
virtues he possessed,' says Mr. Stevenson, 'he could never count on
being civil.' He showed so much courtesy to his wife, however, that a
Styrian peasant who observed it spread a report in the village that Mrs.
Jenkin, a great lady, had married beneath her. At the Savile Club
Savile Club
The Savile Club was founded in 1868 for the purpose of conversation and good company. Though located somewhat out of the way from the main centre of London's gentlemen's clubs, closer to the residences of Mayfair than the clubs of Pall Mall and St James's Street, it still contained some prominent...
, in
London, he was known as the 'man who dines here and goes up to
Scotland.' Jenkin was conscious of this churlishness, and latterly
improved. 'All my life,' he wrote,'I have talked a good deal, with the
almost unfailing result of making people sick of the sound of my tongue.
It appeared to me that I had various things to say, and I had no
malevolent feelings; but, nevertheless, the result was that expressed
above. Well, lately some change has happened. If I talk to a person
one day they must have me the next. Faces light up when they see me.
"Ah! I say, come here." " Come and dine with me." It's the most
preposterous thing I ever experienced. It is curiously pleasant.'
Jenkin was a good father, joining in his children's play as well as
directing their studies. The boys used to wait outside his office for
him at the close of business hours; and a story is told of little
Frewen, the second son, entering in to him one day, while he was at
work, and holding out a toy crane he was making, with the request, 'Papa
you might finiss windin' this for me, I'm so very busy to-day.' He was
fond of animals too, and his dog Plate regularly accompanied him to the
University. But, as he used to say, 'It's a cold home where a dog is
the only representative of a child.'
In the Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
, Jenkin learned to love the Highland character and ways of life. He shot, rode and swam well, and taught his boys athletic exercises, boating, salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
fishing, and so on. He learned to dance a Highland reel, and began the study of Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
; but it proved too difficult even for Jenkin. Once he took his family to Alt Aussee, in the Steiermark (Styria
Styria (state)
Styria is a state or Bundesland, located in the southeast of Austria. In area it is the second largest of the nine Austrian federated states, covering 16,401 km². It borders Slovenia as well as the other Austrian states of Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Burgenland, and Carinthia. ...
), where he hunted chamois, won a prize for shooting at the Schützenfest
Fest
Fest may refer to:* Fest, Danish/German/Norwegian/Swedish for party* Fest, a type of festival* Joachim Fest , German historian and journalist* Fest Magazine, is an Edinburgh Festival review magazine...
, learned the local dialect, sketched the neighbourhood, and danced the steirischen Ländler with the peasants.
His parents and parents-in-law had come to live in Edinburgh, but they all died within ten months of each other. Jenkin had showed great devotion to them in their illnesses, and was worn out with grief and watching. His telpherage, too, had given him considerable anxiety; and his mother's illness, which affected her mind, had
caused him fear. He was planning a holiday to Italy with his wife in order to recuperate, and had a minor operation on his foot, which resulted in blood poisoning. There seemed to be no danger, and his wife was reading aloud to him as he lay in bed, when his mind began to wander. He probably never regained his senses before he died.
At one period of his life Jenkin was a freethinker
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
, holding all dogmas as 'mere blind struggles to express the inexpressible.' Nevertheless, as time went on he returned to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. 'The longer I live,' he wrote, 'the more convinced I become of a direct care by God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
--which is reasonably impossible—but
there it is.' In his last year he took Communion
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
.
Selected works of Fleeming Jenkin
- 1868. "Trades Unions: How Far Legitimate?" North British Review, March.
- 1870. "The Graphical Representation of the Laws of Supply and Demand, and their Application to Labour," in Alexander Grant, ed., Recess Studies, ch. VI, pp. 151–85. Edinburgh. Scroll to chapter link.
- 1872. "On the principles which regulate the incidence of taxes," Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh 1871-2, pp. 618-30.
- All of these are in:
- 1887. Papers, Literary, Scientific, &c, v. 2, ed. S.C. Colvin and J.A. Ewing. Scroll to chapter links.