BOOK NOTICE.

BOOK NOTICE.

The House of Merryweather—A Record of Two Centuries. London. Merritt & Hatcher, Ltd., 1901. “The House of Merry weather” contains a most interesting history of the great English fire engine and fire appliance builders and providers,Merrywealher & Sons, of Longacre and Greenwich, London. It goes back to 1690, and no firm in the industrial world is better known or-has a higher reputation.

The first to embark in the fire appliance line was Moses Merryweather, nephew of Henry Lote, who was a partner in a fire appliance and pumping apparatus factory which was established at the end of the seveuteenth century in Cross street, London, and afterwards removed to the corner of Bow street, Long Acre, where the first fire engine factory was built by Mr. Nathaniel Hadley in 1738. Mr. Merryweather died at Clapham in 1872,at tbe age of eighty-two, and was succeeded as head of the business by his eldest son Richard, who had been apprenticed to his father in 1835. He became prominent in the management of the business just at the time when the fire insurance companies, which then controled the London Fire Engine Establishment, began to wake up to the fact that, if steam fire engines were good for American cities, they should be equally good for those of Great Britain. Accordingly the firm, assisted by its consulting engineer, Mr. Edward Field, C. E., immediately built a thoroughly useful engine for Hodge’s Lambeth distillery. Others were built for home and foreign use, and in 1863, at an International competition the Merryweather engine “Sutherland” won the first prize for large steamers against all competitors. Mr. Richard Merryw'eather died in 1877, in his thirty-ninth year, deeply regretted by all who had known him in any capacity. He was an engineer of great ability, who by his talents and perseverance fought his way to the front in his own line, and died in the hour of victory. He was succeeded by his brother, Mr. James Compton Merryweather, who for the last thirty years has been head of the firm, and is now governor of the company and chairman of the board of directors.