Alexander Williamson Dobbie
IS of Scottish parentage, and was born at Glasgow, Nov. 12, 1843. His father was a skilful engraver and arrived in this colony in 1851 with his family. His mother was a cheerful, energetic, and well-informed woman, and her judicious management had the best effect on the character of her son. Mr. A. W. Dobbie received several years of schooling from Mr. J. Bath, at Port Adelaide, and when fourteen years of age was apprenticed as a brassfounder to Mr. Schwann, of Gawler Place. Before he was nineteen he entered into business on his own account. His taste for the more delicate branches of mechanics led to his undertaking the ordinary work of a machinist, and his liking for ingenious contrivances induced him to cultivate a trade in American inventions. This was greatly expanded by his visit to Philadelphia at the time of the Exhibition in 1876, when he made a tour around the world. As a lad he was fond of electrical experiments, and the knowledge of electro-plating thus acquired was utilised in his business, and thus another extension entered into. His establishment has now grown to considerable dimensions, and affords employment to a large number of workmen. Mr. Dobbie married at the age of twenty-one, and made himself a home, first in the city, and then at College Park. His garden there displays his skill as a florist, whilst his love of the beautiful and the wonderful are to be seen all over the premises. At exhibitions he is always a prize-taker for flowers. Few private houses receive a greater variety of visitors, or afford more interest The garden and green-houses are generally gay with blossoms, electricity pervades the rooms, for there are telephones and microphones everywhere, and outside, on fine evenings his large telescope opens the wonders of the heavens to admiring gazers. Though never a scientific astronomer, Mr. Dobbie, as an observer, has won a good reputation. From descriptions
