superior kind, as well as
block-making machines. Thus the specification of one of his patents,
taken out in 1793, clearly describes a machine for shaping the shells
of the blocks, in a manner similar to that afterwards specified by
Brunel. Bentham had even proceeded with the erection of a building in
Portsmouth Dockyard for the manufacture of the blocks after his method,
the necessary steam-engine being already provided; but with a singular
degree of candour and generosity, on Brunel's method being submitted to
him, Sir Samuel at once acknowledged its superiority to his own, and
promised to recommend its adoption by the authorities in his department.

The circumstance of Mrs. Brunel's brother being Under-Secretary to the
Navy Board at the time, probably led Brunel in the first instance to
offer his invention to the Admiralty. A great deal, however, remained
to be done before he could bring his ideas of the block-machinery into
a definite shape; for there is usually a wide interval between the
first conception of an intricate machine and its practical realization.
Though Brunel had a good knowledge of mechanics, and was able to master
the intricacies of any machine, he laboured under the disadvantage of
not being a practical mechanic and it is probable that but for the help
of someone possessed of this important qualification, his invention,
ingenious and important though it was, would have borne no practical
fruits. It was at this juncture that he was so fortunate as to be
introduced to Henry Maudslay, the inventor of the sliderest.

It happened that a M. de Bacquancourt, one of the French emigres, of
whom there were then so many in London, was accustomed almost daily to
pass Maudslay's little shop in Wells-street, and being himself an
amateur turner, he curiously inspected the articles from time to time
exhibited in the window of the young mechanic. One day a more than
ordinarily nice piece of screw-cutting made its appearance, on which he
entered the shop to make inquiries as to the method by which it had
been executed. He had a long conversation with Maudslay, with whom he
was greatly pleased; and he was afterwards accustomed to look in upon
him occasionally to see what new work was going on. Bacquancourt was
also on intimate terms with Brunel, who communicated to him the
difficulty he had experienced in finding a mechanic of sufficient
dexterity to execute his design of the block-making machinery. It
immed