that that copper coinage was bad, as to which, there is evidence that “the weight ami fineness of the metal was determined by Sir Isaac Newton, the master of the mint.” The fourth son of William Wood was Charles Wood (who died in 1799), assay-master in Jamaica for thirty years, a man remarkable for energy and ability, and of such high moral and religious principles that, notwithstanding the notorious corruption of the age, he never took a perquisite. On his return home, he married and built Lowmill Iron-works near Whitehaven; and removing from Cumberland into South Wales, he erected the Cyfarthfa Iron-works at Merthyr Tydvil. At Jamaica he signalized himself by a discovery (substances and products, although known to the inhabitants of uncultivated regions, are always said to be undiscovered until made known to the scientific world), as to which Knight, in his Cyclopedia of Industry, says, “Platina or Platinum, is an important metal which was first made known in Europe by Mr Wood, assay-master in Jamaica, who met with its ore in 1741.” I give an abridgement of the statements contained in the “Philosophical Transactions.”
On 13th December 1750, William Brownrigg, M.D., F.R.S., (through William Watson, F.R.S.) presented to the Royal Society the following specimens:—
- Platina, in dust, or minute masses, mixed with black sand and other impurities, as brought from the Spanish West Indies.
- Native Platina, separated from the above-mentioned impurities.
- Platina that has been fused.
- Another piece of Platina that was part of the pommel of a sword.
Mr Watson read several Papers “concerning a new semi-metal called Platina” one of which was the Memoir by Dr Brownrigg. who says:— “This semi-metal was first presented to me about nine years ago, by Mr Charles Wood, a skilful and inquisitive metallurgist, who met with it in Jamaica, whither it had been brought from Carthagena, in New Spain. And the same gentleman hath since gratified my curiosity, by making further inquiries concerning this body. It is found in considerable quantities in the Spanish West Indies (in what part I could not learn), and is there known by the name of Platina di Pinto. The Spaniards probably call it Platina, from the resemblance in colour that it bears to silver. It is bright and shining, and of a uniform texture; it takes a fine polish, and is not subject to tarnish or rust; it is extremely hard and compact; but, like bath-metal or cast-iron, brittle, and cannot be extended under the hammer . . . . When exposed by itself to the fire, either in grains or in larger pieces, it is of extreme difficult fusion; and hath been kept for two hours in an air furnace, in a heat that would run down cast-iron in fifteen minutes: which great heat it hath endured without being melted or wasted; neither could it be brought to fuse in this heat, by adding to it Borax and other saline fluxes. But the Spaniards have a way of melting it down, either alone or by means of some flux; and cast it into sword hilts, buckles, snuff-boxes, and other utensils.”
Dr Brownrigg’s paper gave the details of many experiments; as to these he wrote from Whitehaven, February 13, 1751, (n.s.):— “The gentleman, whose experiments on Platina I mentioned to the Royal Society, was Mr Charles Wood, who permitted me to make what use of them I pleased; and I did not pretend to have made anyw discovery, nor to know so much of that body, as hath long been known to the Spaniards. I might indeed have made use of his authority; but he was not ambitious of appearing in print.”
One of Charles Wood’s living representatives is his grand daughter, Mrs Mary Howitt (née Botham), a picturesque poetical authoress, sometimes publishing works entirely her own, and sometimes in partnership with her husband, Mr William Howitt. She herself has long had an honourable place in the literature of her country, her guiding sentiments being (as she herself avows), “the love of Christ, of the poor, and of little children.”
A Norman family of twenty-two sons and one daughter, whose father was Comte de Tankerville, became known in England through the escape hither, from the St Bartholomew massacre, of William Chamberlaine, a younger son, one of a race of “captains and great commanders.” The refugee’s wife was “Jeneveva Vignon of France (see “The Visitation of
