came projector and workman for all the children in the neighbourhood. As I increased in years, my desire for some kind of employment that might render me not burthensome, though blind, induced me to think of music; and, at the age of thirteen, I was sent to Armagh, to learn to play the fiddle. My lodging happened to be at the house of a cabinet maker; this was a fortunate circumstance for me, as I there got such a knowledge of the tools, and manner of working, as has been useful to me ever since. Though these things, however, engaged my mind, and occupied a great part of my time, yet I made as decent a progress in music as any other of Mr. Moorhead's scholars, except one. After living a year and a quarter there, I returned home, where I made, or procured tools, so as to enable me to construct household furniture. "Not being satisfied with the occupation of cabinet maker, I purchased an old set of Irish bagpipes, but, without instruction, it was with difficulty that I put them into playing order. I soon, however, became so well acquainted with the construction of them, that instruments were brought to me from every part of the neighbourhood to be repaired. I found so many defects in this instrument, that I began to consider whether there might not be a better form of it than any I had yet met with; and, from my early instruction in music, and continual study of the instrument, (for indeed I slept but little,) in nine months time (having my tools to make,) I produced the first new set. I then began with clock and watch making, and soon found out a clock maker in Banbridge, who had a desire to learn to play on the pipes, and we mutually in U structed each other. From this time I increased in musical and mechanical knowledge, but made no more pipes, though I repaired many, until the year 1793, when I married, and my necessities induced me to use all my industry for the maintenance of my wife and increasing family. My employment, for twelve years, was making and repairing wind and stringed instruments of music. I also constructed clocks, both common and musical, and sometimes recurred to my first employment of cabinet maker. I also made linen looms, with their different tackling. My principal employment, however, is the construction of the Irish bagpipes, of which I have made thirty sets in the little town I live in, within these eight years past." Thus ends the simple sketch of the life of William Kennedy, in his own unadorned style. The modesty of our blind mechanic has prevented him from enlarging on several points, which I shall here beg leave to notice, illustrative of his ingenuity as an improver of this instrument. In this respect, indeed, he deserves the character of an inventor, as his additions to the Irish pipes will do away with many of their imperfections; and his invention has the great merit of simplicity, for the management of the instrument is nearly as easy now as formerly. To the chaunter he has added keys, by which some flats and sharps, not capable of being before expressed on the instrument, are now produced with ease. He has also added E in alt., being one note above the original compass of the instrument. Two additional notes are given by him to the organ stop, and some of its notes are now capable of being varied from naturals to sharps, according to the key in which the tune is played. The basses, or drones, as they are commonly called, were formerly only in correct tune when playing in some particular keys, but are now so constructed that their notes can be varied, as the key varies in which the tune is played. There is also another alteration worthy of notice, made by the addition of two large keys managed with the wrist, and a part of the basses, or all of them, can be stopped or opened at pleasure. The full particulars of these most ingenious alterations would, however, require terms too technical to be introduced here; in short, this blind mechanic, at the time this account was written, was unequalled in the elegance of his workmanship, and the perfection of his scale, in our favourite national instrument. Having first formed his lathe and tools, from a rude block of ebony, a fragment of an elephants tooth, and a piece of silver, he shapes and bores the complicated tubes, graduates the ventage, adapts the keys, and forms an instrument of perfect external finish and beauty," that produces most eloquent music," capable of expressing the finest movements in melody, and by no means deficient in harmony. All this is accomplished by the exquisite sensibility of touch, for he is stone blind, and quite incapable of distinguishing the black colour of ebony, from the white of ivory. Under poverty, therefore, and physical privation of the most overwhelming kind, he has gradually raised his mechanical powers to such an extraordinary degree of excellence. AUTHORITY. Belfast Monthly Magazine, vol. 1st. THE LIFE OF JOSEPH STRONG, THE BLIND MECHANIC AND MUSICIAN OF CARLISLE. "While in more lengthen'd notes and slow, THE propensity of persons who have had the misfortune to be denied the blessing of sight, to cultivate the science of music, is well known to every one of the least observation. With this propensity is often combined, an extraordinary genius for mechanics; and few have possessed both in a greater degree, than the individual whose history I am now about to present to my readers. Joseph Strong was born in 1732, at Cummersdale, a village about two miles from Carlisle, where his father had a small estate. He lost his sight by the small pox, when he was about four years of age. He very early discovered a genius for music, and a mechanical talent likewise; and, while yet a mere child, he made himself a kind of fiddle, of two or three pieces of wood. When a little older, his father bought him what is called a kit,* and placed him under a master at Carlisle, to be instructed in the use of that instrument. He afterwards made a bell harp, and soon learnt to play upon it. He then proceeded to a flute, and a hautboy, and after this his great ambition was to build an organ. The disposition of the keys he learnt from the spinet, but he was at a loss how to construct the other parts of an organ, and was very desirous of examining that in the cathedral. The following circumstance affords a striking instance of his ingenuity and perseverance, by means of which he contrived to manufacture every thing he thought worth possessing. At the age of fifteen, he one afternoon concealed himself in the cathedral of Carlisle, during the time of divine service, and when the congregation had retired, and the gates were shut, he proceeded to the organ loft, and examined every part of the instrument. He was thus occupied till about midnight, when, having satisfied himself respecting the general construction, he began to try the tone of the different stops, and the proportion they bore to each other. This experiment, however, could not be concluded so silently as the business which had before engaged his attention; the neighbourhood was alarmed, and various were the conjectures as to the cause of the nocturnal music, but at length some persons mustered courage * A kit is a small fiddle, which is put into the hands of children of eight or ten years old, on which they take their first lessons in music. |