s
ARMSTRONG.
work, The Art of Preserving Health, a didactic
poem in blank verse, extending through four books,
appeared in 1744. 1In 1746 he was appointed physi-
cian to the hospital for sick and lame soldiers. In
1751 he published a volume on Benevolence; in
1753, a poetical epistle on Zaste; and in 1758, a
volume of prose essays of no great merit. In 1760
he was appointed physician to the forces in Germany.
In 1761 appeared from his pen Day, @ Poem. On
the peace in 1763, he returned to London, and
resumed practice. In 1771 he made a continental
tour with Fuseli, the painter, an account of which he
published, with the title of 4 Short Ramble through
some Parts of France and Italy, by Lancelot Temple,
Hsq. His last work was a volume of medical essays.
He contributed to Thomson’s Castle of Indolence the
four stanzas at the end of the first part, descriptive
of the diseases resulting from sloth. Died 7th Sep-
tember 1779. A. was the friend of Thomson, Mallet,
Aaron Hill, Dr Young, Wilkes, and the principal
wits and literary men of the period. He seems to
have been a reserved, indolent, and splenetic man,
¢ who quite detested talk ;> kind-hearted withal, and
of frugal habits, having left £3000, saved out of a
small and precarious income. His fame rests entirely
on The Art of Preserving Health, his other works
being now only known by name.
A'RMSTRONG, JoHN, an eminent physician and
medical writer, was born 8th May 1784, at Ayres
Quay, near Bishop- Wearmouth, where his father was
the superintendent of some glassworks. He studied
medicine at the university of Edinburgh, and in
June 1808 took the degree of M.D. He commenced
practice at Bishop-Wearmouth, and in 1811 was
chosen physician to the infirmary at Sunderland.
In 1816 he published a work on 7phus, which
greatly extended his reputation. His researches
concerning the causes and phenomena of febrile dis-
eases having made his name well known in the
metropolis, he was induced, in February 1818, to
remove to London, where his practice became exten-
sive, and he was elected physician to the Fever
Hospital. In 1821, in concert with Mr Edward
Grainger, he established a medical school in Webb
Street, Borough, where he lectured on the practice
of physic. He also delivered a course of lectures
on Materia Medica. In 1826 he joined Dr Boot
and Mr E. Bennett in establishing a new school of
medicine in Dean Street, Soho, but shortly after
relinquished his connection with it. He died of con-
sumption, 12th December 1829, aged 45. Exclusively
devoted to the duties of his profession, Dr A. was
very successful in the elucidation of medical science.
His works are numerous, and he contributed various
papers to the medical journals. His lectures,
inserted in the Lancet in 1825, were published in a
separate form after his death, with the following
title, Lectures on the Morbid Anatom Y, N ature, and
Treatment of Acute and Chronic Diseases, by the late
John Armstrong, M.D. Edited by Joseph Riz—one
of his pupils. (London, 1834, 8vo.)
A'RMSTRONG, Str WirLiam GEORGE, noted for
various mechanical inventions, and particularly that
of a gun of extraordinary power and precision, was
born in 1810 at Newcastle, where his father wag an
eminent corn-merchant, and in 1851 filled the office
of mayor. A.was educated at the school of Bishop-
Auckland ; but his peculiar mental powers were
chiefly cultivated by the opportunities which his
father’s tastes gave him at home, of acquainting
himself with chemistry, electricity, and mechanics.
Though the natural bent of his mind was to some
profession in which these sciences would have been
available, he readily yielded to his father’s wishes,
and was articled to Mr Armourer Donkin, an
420
eminent solicitor in Newecastle, who, at the expira-
tion of his time, adopted him as a partner. A high
sense of duty enabled A. to give his excellent general
powers of mind to business ; but he devoted much of
his leisure to his favourite pursuits, and his inventive
faculty was constantly active. About 1838, observing
one day a little stream descending along a height near
Newecastle, and driving but a single mill, he thought
to how much more purpose it might be applied
hydraulically, and thus was led into a course of
experimenting, which resulted in his producing a
much improved hydraulic engine, of which a descrip-
tion was given in the Mechanics Magazine for
April 18, 1840. Following up this invention with a
view to practical applications, he gave to the world,
in 1845, a hydraulic crane, which has proved to be of
eminent utility in raising weights at harbours and in
warchouses. The discovery of electricity in steam by
a workman at a fixed engine on the Cramlington
Railway in 1840, had meanwhile led A. into a new
path, and in 1842 he brought to perfection an appa-
ratus for producing electricity from steam, which
was soon after introduced into the Polytechnic In-
stitution in London. The evolution of the electricity
depending in reality on the friction sustained by
the small quantity of water which accompanies the
steam in its discharge, the great merit of A.’s inven-
tion in this case lay in the form he gave the orifice
through which the steam passed. A friend, writing
of A. at this time, remarked that he ought to have
been an engineer, so great evidently were his talents
for mechanical science. ‘Plain, simple, and unassum-
ing, no one at first sight could form any idea of the
depth of thought and vast amount of scientific
knowledge which he possesses, and which are accom-
panied by a straightforwardness and consistency
truly admirable’ A change of profession was in
such a case inevitable, and few were surprised when,
soon after being elected a member of the Royal
Society in 1846, A., in conjunction with some
friends, commenced the Elswick Engine-works.
This establishment is upon a large scale, hitherto
chiefly employed in producing hydraulic cranes,
engines, accumulators, and bridges, for use in Great
Britain, the continent, and India, but now embracing
also works for the production of ordnance for the
service of the government.
In 1854, while war was raging in the Crimea, the
War-office was solicited by many inventors to make
trial of new forms of cannon and projectiles. Mr
Armstrong, one of the number, attracted the atten-
tion of the authorities, and was employed to make
explosive apparatus for blowing up the ships sunk
at Sebastopol. This led him soon afterwards to
consider improvements in ordnance, and he devised
a form of breech-loading cannon, combining many
peculiarities in structure and action. He received
encouragement to make a few field-pieces on his
new method. He made lengthened experiments on
the strength of iron and steel, on the relative merits
of cast and wrought iron, on the best number of
grooves in rifling, on the best pitch or twist for these
grooves, on the most convenient modes of loading at
the breech of the gun, on the mechanism for lessen-
ing the recoil, on the best form and structure of
shot and shells, and on the fuses best suited for
igniting the shells during their flight.
Most of the early experiments were made with
guns throwing 6-1b. and 18-1b. shot and shells, and
subsequently 32-Ib. shells, and this larger gun may
be taken as a type of the whole. It is built up
with small pieces of the very best wrought-iron, to
avoid flaws or faults, and to insure strength, light-
ness, and durability. It is made in 3-feet lengths.
Bars of wrought-iron, 2 inches wide, are heated
to whiteness, twisted spirally round a steel bar or
