William George Armstrong, the first and last Baron Armstrong of Cragside, was born on November 26th, 1810, at No. 6 — now No. 9 — Pleasant Row, Shieldfield, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His father, Alderman William Armstrong, came from Wreay, a village near Carlisle. He was mayor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1850, and filled the responsible position of chairman of the River Tyne Committee of the Newcastle corporation from 1843, till it was merged in the River Tyne Commission, of which he continued a member till his death in 1857. His mother, Mrs. Ann Armstrong, was the daughter of Mr. William Potter of Walbottle House. She was a lady of considerable literary culture, and her amiable and gracious disposition, caused her to be beloved by all who knew her. Lord Armstrong always spoke of his mother with deep affection, and the almshouses, which he built at Rothbury, are dedicated to her memory.

Alderman Armstrong was a well-educated man, noteworthy as a good mathematician, who contributed to the diaries, and collected a valuable mathematical library, which his son gave to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Alderman Armstrong was one of the earliest supporters of that institution, and he was also one of the original members of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

During the childhood of Lord Armstrong, a slight, constitutional delicacy confined him for long intervals to the house. He had no playmates, his only sister being older than himself. but his loneliness only served to foster his natural genius and to make him more self-reliant and resourceful. He took great pleasure in mechanical toys, but they were invariably taken to pieces to find out how they acted. A favourite amusement was to construct machinery out of old spinning-wheels and household articles. When these were set in motion by weights hung by strings over the rail of the stairhead he played at grinding corn, pumping water, or other useful work. He spent many happy hours in the shop of a joiner, who worked for his grandfather, where he familiarised himself with tools, and imitated the lobs of his humble friend.

Lord Armstrong was at first placed at a private school in Newcastle. Ho was afterwards sent to Whickham, and subsequently, in 1826, to the Grammar School at Bishop Auckland. The engineering works of Mr. Ramshaw were near this town; and in 1834, Lord Armstrong married Mr. Ramshaw's daughter Margaret, a lady of great force of character, who ably and heartily seconded the philanthropic schemes of her husband. She was Mayoress in 1850; and in 1893 she died, without issue, and was buried at Rothbury.

In 1828, Lord Armstrong was articled to Mr. Armorer Donkin, a highly respected solicitor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He then completed his legal education in the chambers of his brother-in-law, Mr. Watson, afterwards a Baron of the Exchequer. In 1833, he was admitted to a partnership in the firm, which was then styled "Donkin, Stable and Armstrong."

But Lord Armstrong's heart was always set upon engineering. He spent many hours of his leisure watching the machinery in the High Bridge Works, and he took the greatest interest in all mechanical operations. In 1835, his attention was attracted to the waste of energy in an overshot water-wheel, which supplied power for a quarry in Dent Dale, Yorkshire. For three years, he considered the best method of utilizing the force of a stream, and in 1838 he published his ideas on the use of water as a motive power in the Mechanics Magazine. He was never content to throw out suggestions, and to leave to others the task of overcoming the difficulties of their practical application. In 1840, he described in the same periodical a water-pressure wheel, which he had constructed, and which was a great improvement on any in use up to that time. The circumference of the wheel was fitted with equal circular discs, whose diameters were in the direction of the radii of the wheel, and whose planes were perpendicular to the central plane of the wheel, and passed through the axis about which the wheel revolved. These discs successively entered a tube in the form of a portion of a circular anchor-ring, concentric with the wheel, and made to fit the discs. The water flowing through this tube acted on the discs with considerable force. It was a noteworthy invention, sound in principle, and capable of very varied and important applications. But no engineers appeared willing to recognize its value. so with characteristic soundness of judgment, unfailing patience. and indomitable perseverance, he set to work to apply waterpower in some more popular way.

In the autumn of 1840, William Patterson, who was employed at a fixed steam engine on the railway of Cramlington colliery, being brought into contact with a jet of steam issuing from a leak in the high-pressure boiler, observed a spark pass from his hand to the lever of the safety-valve, which he was adjusting and he experienced at the same time an electric shock. His report brought the matter under the notice of the scientific men of the day, but Lord Armstrong was the first to give the correct explanation of the phenomenon in a series of papers in the Philosophical Magazine in 1842 and 1843. In 1844, he exhibited to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne his hydro-electric machine, which consisted of an insulated boiler from which steam at high pressure was allowed to escape through special nozzles. The original machine was afterwards given by him to the Durham College of Science. Tb is was the most powerful means then known of producing electricity, and it is still used when electricity of high tension is required under certain circumstances. It was so highly appreciated that it secured his election as a fellow of the Royal Society. His certificate, dated March 10th, 1846, described him as "a gentleman well-known as an earnest investigator of physical science, especially with reference to the electricity of steam, and the hydro-electric machine." It was signed by the leading physicists of that day, among whom we may notice Michael Faraday, W. R. Grove, and C. Wheatstone.

In former times, the inhabitants of Newcastle used the water of the Tyne for household purposes. This supply was subsequently supplemented from the springs at Coxlodge. But with the growth of the population the Tyne became more contaminated, and the water obtainable from Coxlodge more inadequate. In the beginning of 1845, the prospectus of the Whittle Dene Water Company was issued. The provisional committee comprised some score of the leading citizens, and it was presided over by the Mayor, Mr. Alderman Potter; but the master mind, which directed the movement, was that of Lord Armstrong. Their plan was to divert some of the water flowing into Whittle burn, a tributary of the Tyne, and to store it in a large accumulation-reservoir about 360 feet above Tyne high-water mark, from which they proposed to bring the water through metal pipes, 24 inches in diameter, to Newcastle. These were then the largest mains in the world, and excited an amount of opposition which reflects little credit upon the foresight of the citizens of that day. At the first meeting of the shareholders on July 26th, 1845, Lord Armstrong, the moving spirit of the enterprise, was appointed secretary. He managed so well that the undertaking was a commercial success from the beginning, and from that day this growing city has enjoyed the great boon of an abundant supply of pure water. He also invented about this time, in conjunction with the late Mr. Thomas Hawksley, a valve to close the pipes automatically in the event of a leakage. This valve has been adopted by every water-company in the world, and it remains in use at the present time. At the second meeting of the shareholders, on February 25th, 1842, he resigned his secretaryship, as more important business required his whole attention.

In fact, Lord Armstrong had by this time perfected his hydraulic crane. He had long ago arrived at the conviction that water would be more useful if employed for the transmission of power than as a prime mover. On December 3rd, 1845, he exhibited, in the theatre of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, an admirable model of a portion of the Quay, with a crane worked from the water mains of the town. In February, 1846, he obtained permission from the Town Council of Newcastle-upon-Tyne to erect one of his cranes on the Quay at his own expense. Lord Armstrong always showed remarkable perception in his selection of those whom he employed to work for him. The man whom he chose to manage his crane became so skilful in its manipulation, that he gained the nickname of "Hydraulic Jack." So successfully did he handle it that towards the end of the year, the crane had attracted much favourable notice. Not only was Lord Armstrong authorized to erect more cranes on the Quay, but their fame brought many people from a distance to examine their performances. Amongst others, Mr. Jesse Hartley, the able but eccentric engineer of the Liverpool docks, was so impressed with their value, that he ordered some for his own quays. To supply this increasing demand Lord Armstrong, on January 1st, 1847, founded the Elswick engineering works, his first partners being Messrs Armorer Donkin, Addison Potter, George Cruddas and Richard Lambert. The firm proposed to undertake all kinds of engineering work — an hydraulic engine to drive the printing presses of the Newcastle Chronicle, mining machinery for the lead-works at Allenheads, and winding-engines for the South Hetton Coal Company were among their earliest productions. But in spite of the genius of their able director the Elswick engineering works did not at first make very quick progress. Orders did not come in very rapidly, and there was some difficulty at starting in estimating the cost of production.

All the hydraulic machinery erected by Lord Armstrong up to 1849 was worked by water from the town mains, but in that year he received commissions for his cranes at places on the Humber and Tees where the pressure in the water-pipes was insufficient. To avoid building a reservoir, he used an air-vessel. but the device was not entirely satisfactory. In the following year, 1850, he was engaged in the construction of some cranes for the goods-sheds of rite Ferry station of the Manchester. Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, near New Holland-on-the-Humber. The surface of the land in this district is absolutely flat, and the ground, consisting of deep silt, afforded no foundation for the erection of a reservoir of the size necessary and of a sufficiently high elevation. He was here led to the idea of a new substitute for a large elevated reservoir. This consisted of a cast-iron vertical cylinder of considerable dimensions, fitted with a loaded plunger to give pressure to the water injected by an engine. This contrivance he called an "accumulator," It not only made it easy for him to work with water at any required pressure, but the pressure produced was more constant than that of the water in ordinary water-mains. In no previous case had he used a pressure exceeding 90 pounds on the square inch, but he now decided to work at 600 pounds. The storage-capacity of the accumulator is less than that of a reservoir, but the higher pressures employed enable the distributing pipes to be made of smaller dimensions than would otherwise be necessary. It also rendered hydraulic machinery available in almost every situation. Being very convenient where power is required at intervals and for short periods, it has come into extensive use for working cranes and hoists, loading and discharging goods, opening and closing lock-gates, docking and launching ships, raising lifts, turning capstans, pumping water, crushing ores, and doing many kinds of useful work. It has procured important economies, and, especially where large amounts of traffic have to to be dealt with, it has saved both time and money. In the Royal navy, its applications are almost infinite in number. In spite of the rivalry of electric motors, it may still be said that a modern warship without hydraulic machinery would be an impossibility. There is hardly a manufacture of importance which has not been greatly aided by the beneficial substitution of mechanical power for laborious, and often injurious, human toil.

On November 5th, 1854, the British army won the battle of Inkerman. The victory was largely due to the gunners, who, by laboriously dragging two 16 pounders up an eminence, were able to give assistance which decided the fortune of the day. It occurred to Lord Armstrong, that, if cannon could be constructed on similar principles to rifles, they would be at once less heavy and more strong, and both more accurate and of greater range. Up to that time, guns were cast solid in a mould, arid then bored along the axis. It is well-known that the strength of a homogeneous cylinder is not proportional to its thickness In order to obtain the greatest resistance to bursting, the external layer must be in a state of initial tension, which should diminish in each succeeding inward layer, until a neutral point, is reached; beyond which a state of compression must prevail, gradually increasing to a maximum at the interior surface."

Lord Armstrong applied himself to this problem with characteristic perseverance, energy, and thoroughness. By a series of. experiments, he first proved that steel and wrought-iron were the best materials available. Then he built up his gun by shrinking red-hot jackets of twisted wrought-iron rods, welded together, on a steel core. He improved the mounting, and slides and traversing platforms were provided for the carriage to run on. He also devised a mechanical "compressor-brake" to check recoil. This consisted of a number of short iron plates on the carriage, which interlaced with long plates or bars on the slide in such a manner that both could be clamped together by the action of the compressor-jaws. In process of time, when the size of the guns was increased, he substituted the hydraulic buffer, but as this gave trouble with the valves, it was ultimately superseded by the well-known Vavasseur system, introduced about twenty years ago.

Lord Armstrong also invented breech-loading, and devised both the screw and the wedge methods of closing the breech. He rifled the bore, and investigated the best dimensions for the charging-chamber. For round cannon-balls he substituted an elongated lead-covered projectile with an ogival head — a shape which has not yet been improved upon. In 1855, his first 3 pounder was completed, but the artillerists of the day derided it as a pop-gun. So he constructed a 6 pounder and after a long series of trials at Jesmond dene, and subsequently at Allenheads, he submitted it to the Government. This was tested in every possible way, and was found to be so satisfactory that it was adopted for the British army.

Lord Armstrong then generously and patriotically gave all his gunnery inventions to the nation, and placed his services at their command. In 1859, he accepted the post of Engineer of Rifled Ordnance, being made C.B. and receiving the honour of knighthood. A new ordnance department was erected at Elswick by a separate company, in which Lord Armstrong had no pecuniary interest At these works, between 1859 and 1863, he superintended the construction of three or four thousand guns. Great Britain now possessed the finest armament in the world. But the Armstrong guns were very strongly opposed. They were unsuitable for exposed situations, and required careful treatment. The breech mechanism was complicated and expensive, both in first cost and in maintenance. It was not quite safe in the hands of unskilful gunners. Rivals loudly emphasized these drawbacks, and in 1863 the authorities reverted to muzzle-loaders. Apparently Lord Armstrong did not receive the consideration due to his great talents and important services. British orders were almost entirely withdrawn. but on the other hand the Elswick ordnance works were now at liberty to accept commissions from foreign governments. These soon increased, especially as Lord Armstrong continued to improve his guns. As far back as 1855, Captain Blakeney had proposed to substitute for hoops or jackets wire wound at high tension round the core. The same idea had occurred independently to Mr. Brunel, who gave Lord Armstrong a commission for a gun constructed on this principle. This could not be executed, for it was found that Mr. Longridge had taken out a patent for it. Some time after his patent bad expired, this plan of building up guns was adopted at Elswick. At present, a steel ribbon of rectangular section (0.25 inch by 0.06 inch), possessing tensile strength up to 110 tons per square inch, ms wound on a steel core at a tension of about 40 tons per square inch. These guns are very strong in proportion to their weight. The defects in the breech-action were also removed and the mounting was greatly improved. Still the War Office clung tenaciously to the out-of-date, unwieldy muzzle-loaders. The British artillery fell perilously behind that of the rest of Europe, and a naval war at that time might have entailed disastrous consequences. But in 1880, our authorities were once more persuaded to adopt breech-loaders, to the great advantage of our armament.

The economical use of fuel is always an important study for a thoughtful engineer, and Lord Armstrong's attention was specially directed to the wasteful use of coal by an invitation from the Northumberland Steam Collieries Association in 1855, that he should join a small committee appointed to adjudicate a prize of Ј500 for the best method of preventing smoke, when Hartley coals were burnt in marine boilers, lie entered into this investigation with his characteristic zeal and earnestness, and after many experiments brought out a final report in 1858. But he was so deeply impressed with the danger which threatened this country through the premature exhaustion of our coal-fields, that, when the British Association for the Advancement of Science met at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1868, he devoted a considerable portion of his presidential address to the probable duration of our coal-supply. He calculated that at the rate ol consumption at that time Great Britain would in about 200 years cease to be a coal-exporting country. This attracted so much attention, that a Royal Commission was ordered to report upon the subject, and his evidence was among the most valuable collected on that occasion. In 1878, when he was president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, he returned to the discussion of our wasteful employment of our national fuel. He estimated, that, in an ordinary engine, only about 1-36th of the energy of the coal was applied to useful work, and he strenuously urged a more careful husbanding of our resources by greater economy in burning. He strongly advocated that we should take advantage of other sources of power. In 1880, he pointed out the importance of the utilization of such natural forces as waterfalls and solar beat. He calculated that the heat received from the sun in a single day upon one acre of land within the tropics would, if collected and properly applied, perform as much work as 4,000 horses could produce in 9 hours, and he suggested the possibility of contriving this by a kind of thermopile.

In 1855, Lord Armstrong was elected chairman of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Water Company, and he continued to preside over its affairs until 1867.

Meanwhile, the Elswick works were increasing their business and growing in importance. The development was no doubt a great measure, the fruit of Lord Armstrong's judicious selection of able colleagues. But the enterprise owed its birth to his genius, it was fostered at first by his unceasing care, for many years it had the benefit of his constant superintendence, and up to within a short time of his last illness it was greatly indebted to his suggestions. In 1863, the ordnance works were incorporated, and about the same time blast-furnaces were established. In 1868, the firm began to build and equip warships. At first these were launched from the Walker yard of Messrs. Mitchell and Swan ; but, in 1882, the two undertakings were united and formed into a public company under the style of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Mitchell and Company. Soon afterwards a shipbuilding yard was established at Elswick, which has turned out a splendid fleet of warships under the able direction of Sir William White, and later, of Mr. Philip Watts.

From an early date, Lord Armstrong had taken great interest in problems connected in the mounting and working of guns on ships. Front the first, he was a steadfast believer in guns as against armour. He had himself worked at the improvement of armour-plating. He had obtained steel of very high tensile strength and great toughness, by tempering it in an oil-bath. But after all his experiments he came to the conclusion, that the first requisite for warships was great offensive power. He held, that to render a ship safe from being sunk by modern artillery, we should have to eliminate its ability to sink anything else. At first he advocated vessels with little or no side armour, but otherwise constructed to minimize the effect of projectiles upon them. The main objects at which he aimed were high speed, great nimbleness of movement, and considerable power of offence. He accordingly devoted special attention to the design and construction of vessels of the cruiser type, which was to a large extent originated by himself. His firm built several vessels of this class, leading up to the "Esmeralda," launched for the Chilian government in 1882. Since several light cruisers could be built for the cost of a single ironclad, he argued that the former would be a better investment for the nation. A large number of ships would be necessary to guard British commerce scattered all over the world; and he believed that three or four of these lighter vessels acting together might prove more than a match for the most heavily armoured ironclad. Latterly, after the introduction of high explosives, lie recommended that even cruisers should be to a certain extent protected by plates about the more vital parts.

During recent years, under the management of Sir Andrew Noble, the success of the Elswick works has been phenomenal. They have continued to increase their business, and it is said to be still steadily growing. Last year the company owned 230 acres of land, and in a single week Ј36,802 was paid in wages to 25,028 workmen.

In later life, the work that gave Lord Armstrong most pleasure was electrical research. In 1897, he published a beautifully illustrated work on Electric Motion in Air and Water. In 1899, with the assistance of Dr. Henry Stroud, professor of physics in the Durham College of Science, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he brought out a still more sumptuously illustrated supplement This was his most important publication. He had been joint editor of The Industrial Resources of the Tyne, the Wear, and the Tees, which appeared in 1863. In 1872, he visited Egypt to advise the Khedive as to the best method of obviating the interruption to the Nile traffic caused by the cataracts. His four interesting lectures to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, describing his journey, were published in an unpretentious volume in 1874. He was also the author of a large number of papers, chiefly on scientific subjects, but some on social and educational questions. References to the more important of these may be found in the supplement to the Dictionary of National Biography.

In June 1886, influenced by his strong sense of duty to his country and the urgent solicitations of the party, Lord Armstrong reluctantly came forward as a unionist candidate with Viscount Ridley for the representation of the parliamentary borough of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. But, partly owing to the labour troubles of that time, the Gladstonian candidates gained the election. In the following September he received the freedom of the city, and in 1887 he was raised to the peerage.

Lord Armstrong was Vice-President of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers in 1866-67. 1867-68, 1868-69 and 1869-70, and President in 1872-73, 1873-74 and 1874-75. He was an honorary member of the North-East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders. He was President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1861, 1862 and 1869. He was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1882, which in 1880 had awarded him their Telford Medal. The Society of Arts gave him their Albert Medal in 1878, and the Iron and Steel Institute their Bessemer Medal in 1891. The Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Durham and Dublin gave him the highest honours which it was in their power to bestow. He was decorated with orders by the Kings of Denmark, Spain and Siam, and also by the Emperors of Austria, China and Japan.

Lord Armstrong was a very notable benefactor to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and every institution of importance in the neighbourhood worthy of support, received his generous help. The Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for example, is indebted to him for donation amounting to more than Ј14,000. He employed his genius for landscape-gardening in beautifying Jesmond dene, devoting much time and thought to it, as well as spending large sums money upon it, and, when perfected, he presented it, with about 93 acres of land in all, a free gift to the city his birth.

His benefactions at Rothbury were upon the same princely scale. Here, by Coquet-side, amid the haunts of his youth, he returned to spend the evening of his life, and among the beetling crags of a rugged dene he built his stately home. He laid out roads upon its rocky slopes, he trained streams, and dug out lakes. He sowed flowers, planted rare shrubs, and covered the ground with millions of noble trees, till the bleak hill-side was transformed into a magnificent park, and the barren wilderness was clothed with beauty. In 1898, he began the restoration of Bam burgh castle, but he did not live to see the completion of his great design. In spite of the unceasing care and affectionate solicitude of those who were more tender and more faithful than many children, his health failed in the autumn of 1900, and on December 27th, He peacefully passed to rest. On the last day of the century, all that was mortal of Lord Armstrong was laid in Rothbury churchyard beside the remains of his wife, in the presence of one of the most representative gatherings ever witnessed in Northumberland. No man has been more closely identified with the utilization of natural forces to the service of man during the nineteenth century than Lord Armstrong, whose long life extended through nine of its decades. He has left us a bright example of the glory of work and of the power of perseverance. It is impossible to imagine a greater capacity for taking pains, a braver heart never discouraged by failure. With inexhaustible resourcefulness he would often learn even from disappointments the secret of success. His keen perception seized with a firm grip the essentials of a problem, and lie arrived by the intuition of genius at results which mathematicians could only verify by laborious calculations. Endowed with broad sympathies amid many-sided interests, he possessed in a remarkable degree the power of intense concentration on each in turn. His tact and common sense wasted no time upon wild or extravagant speculations. With unrivalled clear-sightedness he saw what was wanted, and he pursued his objects with a patient tenacity of purpose which no difficulties could daunt, no obstacles turn aside. His favourite motto was "Perseverance generally prevails." His remarkable success was largely due to his unerring judgment in choosing his colleagues and his assistants, who were encouraged to their best efforts by his wise liberality as well as by his amiable and unselfish disposition. His kindliness of heart prompted his princely hospitality. His unaffected modesty, his gentleness and courtesy adorned an engaging personality, which attracted the sincere admiration of all who came within his influence. His fame spread through many nations. Obituary notices in every language known to civilization proved that the whole world felt poorer by his death. But simple in his habits, unassuming and free from ostentation, he lived among his own people to the end; and his memory will ever be especially beloved and honoured in the North of England.

Mr. A. L. Steavenson (Durham) said that as one of the oldest members present (having joined the Institute in 1856) it perhaps devolved appropriately upon him to propose a vote of thanks to Principal Gurney for his very beautiful memoir of Lord Armstrong. In 1861, he (Mr. Steavenson) first became acquainted with Lord Armstrong's work, in connection with the hydraulic hoists which were erected at the Clarence works in Cleveland, and ever since their erection they had worked with a steady uniform speed, nor had any case of failure or breakdown ever been known in connection with them; he doubted whether any other apparatus could be produced which would give anything like the same economy.

Mr. J. H. Merivale seconded the vote of thanks, which was heartily adopted.