SIR CHARLES FOX was born at Derby on the 11th of March, 1810, and was the youngest of the four sons of Dr. Fox, who held a prominent position as a physician in that town. He was articled to his brother, Mr. Douglas Fox, then practising as a surgeon, and remained with him for some time. During this period he prepared a great deal of apparatus with his own hands for his brother's lectures at the Mechanics' Institution, and also aided in working out the process of casting in elastic moulds, for which the silver medal of the Society of Arts was awarded to Mr. D. Fox. He manifested from the first much mechanical skill, and took the deepest interest, when quite a lad, in manufactures of all kinds. The projection of the Liverpool and Manchester railway gave increased force to his natural bent, and, being released from his medical articles, he was taken as a pupil by Captain Ericsson, then of Liverpool. Whilst with that gentleman, he was engaged in experiments upon rotary engines, and in designing and constructing the "Novelty " engine, one of the three which competed at Rainhill in October 1829. Shortly afterwards, through the late Mr. Robert Stephenson, M.P., Past-President Inst. C.E., he obtained an appointment as an Assistant Engineer on the London and Birmingham railway, then in course of construction, being placed first under the late Mr. Luck, M. Inst. C.E., on the Watford section, and afterwards in charge of the Extension Works from Camden Town to Euston Square.