Like most good plans Jenkin’s scheme was simple in the extreme, and consisted in _combination_ and a small subscription.
‘Just,’ he says, ‘as the leading physician of the day may give his services to great numbers of poor patients when these are gathered in a hospital, although he could not practically visit them in their own houses, so the simple fact of a number of clients gathered into a group will enable the leading engineer to give them the benefit of his advice.’
But it was his opinion that only ‘continual supervision could secure the householder from danger due to defects in sanitary appliances.’ He had in his eye a case precisely similar. The following passage in one of his first lectures, afterwards repeated frequently, conveys the essence of Professor Jenkin’s theory, as well as a graceful acknowledgment of the source from which this happy idea was derived:—
‘An analogous case occurred to him,’ he said, ‘in the “Steam Users’ Association,” in Lancashire. So many boilers burst in that district for want of inspection that an association was formed for having the boilers under a continual course of inspection. Let a perfect boiler be bought from a first-rate maker, the owner has then an apparatus as perfect as it is now sought to make the sanitary appliances in his house. But in the course of time the boiler must decay. The prudent proprietor, therefore, joins the Steam-boiler Association, which, from time to time, examines his boiler, and by the tests they apply are able to give an absolute guarantee against accident. This idea of an inspection by an association was due,’ the lecturer continued, ‘to Sir William Fairbairn, under whom he had the honour of serving his apprenticeship.’ { 288} The steam users were thus absolutely protected from danger; and the same idea it was sought to apply to the sanitary system of a house.
To bring together a sufficient number of persons, to form such a ‘group’ as had been contemplated, was the first step to be taken. No time was lost in taking it. The idea hitherto roughly blocked out was now given a more definite form. The original sketch, as dictated by Jenkin himself, is before me, and I cannot do better than transcribe it, seeing it is short and simple. Several important alterations were afterwards made by himself in consultation with one or two of his Provisional Council; and as experience suggested:—