JACOB PERKINS, the subject of this memoir, was born at Newburyport, on the ninth day of July, 1776. His father was Mr. Mathew Perkins, a descendant, in the third generation, of one of the first settlers of Ipswich, which is one of the oldest towns in Massachusetts, and has, ever since its settlement, been remarkable for the longevity of many of its inhabitants. This gentleman died a few years since, nearly ninety years of age. He retained his mental and corporeal faculties, in a wonderful degree, until the last days of his life. He was a man of a strong mind; an industrious, good citizen, and a careful father, but brought up his children in the strict school of Presbyterian discipline. Jacob early discovered marks of an inquisitive mind; for before he had learned his letters, he chanced to get into his possession a large watch, which he opened with great care, and for a long time listened to ascertain what made the noise in it. His mother found him with it, and hastily took it from him, thinking he must have done it some injury; but the child earnestly requested her to let him have it again, when he was a bigger boy, that he might see what made the noise. As soon as he could read words of three syllables, he was sent to the public school, and was kept there until he was twelve years old. The school-fellows of Perkins speak of him as a smart boy at that time, who was fair in all play, yet he was sure to be among the first in every game in which children amuse themselves. At twelve years of age, he was sent as an apprentice to a Mr. Davis, of Newburyport, a goldsmith, to learn the art and mysteries of the trade. This was considered the best situation for the developement of the lad's talents for the mechanical arts. His opportunities for acquiring information were, however, small, and these advantages, such as they were, did not continue long, for Davis died when Perkins had only served out three years of his apprenticeship. Davis left a large family of small children, who had been dependent on his labour for support.

This was a trying period for Perkins, then a youth of fifteen years of age, panting for knowledge, and desirous of reaching the metropolis to find instruction in his pro

fession; but the widow of Davis, with her destitute children, laid such claims to his generosity and sympathy, that he did not long hesitate, but made up his mind to carry on the business of the shop, and give all the emoluments for their maintenance, and this determination he religiously fulfilled; and the establishment, during the remaining years of his apprenticeship, was more lucrative than it was in the life time of his master. Gold beads were then worn on the neck of every class of respectable females, from the aged dame with bible and spectacles to the laughing and buoyant damsel of fifteen: of course there was an extensive market for this article ; the workmanship of his beads was of the highest order; the honesty of so kind and faithful a young man was never questioned, nor could be, and the shop was the resort of all who wanted to purchase. This was a fortunate commencement; for people of every grade, from king Hiero, to the simplest maiden whose industry had just reached the happiness of seeing a string of pure and shining gold upon her spotless bosom, dislike to be duped in matters of ornament, more particularly, perhaps, than in any other. Shoe-buckles were then universally worn by all ages and classes, and Perkins turned his attention to the manufactory of them, and soon discovered a method of plating them, entirely new, by which he could bring his work into the market at less prices than the imported ones of equal goodness and beauty could be afforded.

But the fashion of this ornament soon passed away, and so entirely, that for the last twenty years scarcely a pair of buckles has been scen, and then only when worn by some pertinacious adherent to antiquated dress.

During the old confederation, each state had a right to coin money for itself; Massachusetts had a mint, from which was issued copper coin only, stamped with the arms of the commonwealth. The art of making dies for this coinage was then, with us, in its infancy; and it was with great difficulty that a mechanic could be found, of sufficient skill to undertake the task. After numerous failures of others, Perkins was employed by government, when he was but twenty-one years of age, and

succeeded to the satisfaction of the master of the mint, the late Ebenezer Hancock, Esq. from whom the writer had this information. At twenty-four he invented the nail machine, which cut and headed nails at one operation.

This was the best labour-saving machine that had ever been in use among us. Those, at first doubtful of its success, were at length convinced of the great utility of this invention; and it was generally considered as the sure foundation of the inventor's fortune and fame. Great offers were made him for a share of the patent. This was indeed a wonderful machine; such celerity of motion, such power of execution, such a combination of mechanical principles, had rarely, or never, been seen in this country. Those who foretold the success of the invention were right-time has proved it; but those who thought that great advantages would result from it, to the inventor, forgot that knaves might reap what industry sowed, and bargain-making men enjoy what genius had created. At this time, two unprincipled adventurers from abroad, with the appearance of great wealth, engaged with Perkins in erecting a factory for putting the machine in operation on a large scale. The works were auspiciously commenced, and continued to answer the expectations of the public for a year or two, and were becoming more perfect every day, under the superintendence of Perkins; when it was discovered by him that his copartners had but little money, and less honesty, and that their credit was lost. The establishment was sold by them, and Perkins was suddenly left with the loss of all his hard labours and the property he had put into the concern. This was not all; they left debts for which he was answerable, without any means for their payment. The disaster would, to most men, have been overwhelming;—to be levelled with the dust is nothing; to be stripped of every thing is but a trifle to one of such unbounded resources; but to be surrounded with duns, to be crushed with debts of others, is sufficient to bow the mightiest intellect, that Heaven ever, in its bounty, created. To meet the sneers of fools, who prophesied, after the event, that the plan was too great;

to encounter the pitiful arrogance of vulgar minds, who swell in importance in proportion to the depression of their superiors, and increase their taunts in proportion to the calmness of the victim, is almost too much for human nature—it requires a divine one to support it and fully forgive the tormentors. Little creditors are always the most vindictive. These Lilliputians bind down, by the cords of the law, the man-mountain, until they have taken an inventory of every article about him, vex him with their tiny, poisoned arrows as long as they please, and then stipulate for his future services as a condition of release. By the assistance of his friends, however, Perkins soon overcame these difficulties and started with fresh vigour to apply his mind to his profession, and was successful in almost every thing he undertook, so far as to shew that he seldom pursued an inquiry without some beneficial result to the public. A set of liberal men had purchased the factory he and his copartners had abandoned, who employed him to put the factory in operation and to add some improvements to the old works. This did much to amuse him, until he found other business, and they knew and acknowledged, in a proper manner, the value of his services. The evil of Counterfeit bank notes in the market, was severely felt by all classes of people. The ingenuity of Perkins was called into requisition to avert in some degree this sore vexation and calamity. Nothing could be more difficult than to stop the practice of counterfeiting by detecting the authors of it; they fly from one place to another at a great distance from each other, with such security in a thinly settled country, and find so many facilities in getting off spurious bills, that the race can never be extirpated by the terrors of the law, nor the vigilance of the police; something, therefore, was to be done, which would give the most ignorant in the community some guide by which he might determine, in most cases, the spurious from true bills.

This was a progressive labour. The experiment was first made by a small stamp on the common bills; this answered a very good purpose, for the stamp was seldom imitated. Afterwards, the check-plate was used,

which was one of the best preventives of deception that we have ever had. Even the race of counterfeiters never tried to imitate this plan, or never, with the slightest success; and in their flash language to one another, they bear testimony to its excellence, by often saying, that they had such a sum of money in bank bills, and so much in check-backs; or, sometimes, striped bucks -giving their associates to understand by these latter terms, how much good and genuine paper they had in their possession; and many of them, when detected and condemned, and could have no farther interest in the prosperity of the trade, have declared the fact, that they could do nothing with these plates. The public prosecutors have uniformly stated, that they never had made an indictment on an imitation of this plate. The bills were rather thick and clumsy, and of course, not of easy management in the banks; and others of a thinner sort were preferred. But it would be better for the safety of the community, if more of these bills were in circulation; and the banks begin to be of this opinion. Many brokers have very lately regretted that the law of this commonwealth, in favour of Perkins's stereotype plate, was ever repealed.

A self-taught man, in his progress to knowledge, has a thousand difficulties to contend with, that the regularly educated man does not meet. Instead of having rules, principles and axioms stored in his memory for use, he has to form, as it were, his own alphabet of the sciences and the arts he is striving to understand. The elementary principles which have been discovered and fixed for ages, are but little known to him. He becomes the true inventor of many things, when, perhaps, the original inventor lived ages before him, and may be forgotten. Much time is therefore spent in toiling up to the knowledge of his own time. This exertion may strengthen the powers of his mind, but it certainly consumes some of the best years of human life; and after all, he has, probably, imbibed numerous errors in philosophy, which have been detected, and their fallacy proved to the learned and scientific, long before he existed. He who becomes a traveller of the globe, had better