Lives of Boulton and Watt. Principally from the Original Soho Mss. Comprising also a history of the invention and introduction of the steam engine

The fragile and sickly Watt outlived the most robust of his contemporaries. He was residing at Glenarbach, near Dumbarton, with relatives, when the intelligence reached him of t...

The steam-engine had now become firmly established as a working power. Beginning as a water pumper for miners, it had gradually been applied to drive corn and cotton mills, to r...

Watt’s presence being much wanted in Cornwall, he again proceeded thither, accompanied by his wife and family, and arrived at Cosgarne towards the end of June, 1781. He found th...

On the dissolution of the original partnership between Boulton and Watt at the expiry of the patent in 1800, Boulton was seventy-two years old, and Watt sixty-four. The great wo...

The Cornish miners continued baffled by their attempts to get rid of the water which hindered the working of their mines. The Newcomen engines had been taxed to the utmost, but...

When Boulton returned to Birmingham, he was urgently called upon to take part in a movement altogether foreign to his habits. He had heretofore been too much engrossed by busine...

The battle of the firm had hitherto been all up-hill. Nearly twenty years had passed since Watt had made his invention. His life since then had been a constant struggle, and it...

Boulton again went to Watt’s help in Cornwall at the end of autumn, 1779. He could not afford to make a long stay, but left so soon as he had settled several long-pending agreem...

When Matthew Boulton entered into partnership with James Watt, he gave up the ormolu business in which he had before been principally engaged. He had been accustomed to supply G...

It will be remembered that one of the early speculations of Roger Bacon related to the employment of engines of navigation without oarsmen, “so that the greatest river and sea s...

From an early period, Birmingham has been one of the principal centres of mechanical industry in England. The neighbourhood abounds in coal and iron, and has long been famous fo...

When James Watt, a youth of eighteen, went to Glasgow in 1754 to learn his trade, the place was very different from the Glasgow of to-day. Not a steam-engine was then at work in...

As men are known by the friends they make and the books they read, as well as by the recreations and pursuits of their leisure hours, it will help us to an appreciation of the c...

Dr. Black continued to take a lively interest in Watt’s experiments, and lent him occasional sums of money from time to time to enable him to prosecute them to an issue. But the...

Want of water-power was one of the great defects of Soho as a manufacturing establishment, and for a long time Boulton struggled with the difficulty. The severe summer droughts...

The attempts hitherto made to invent a working steam-engine, it will be observed, had not been attended with much success. The most that could be said of them was, that, by demo...

It was in the year 1759 that Robison first called the attention of his friend Watt to the subject of the steam-engine. Robison was then only in his twentieth, and Watt in his tw...

Watt now arranged to take up his residence in Birmingham until the issue of the steam-engine enterprise could be ascertained, and he went down to Glasgow to bring up his two chi...

Watt had now been occupied for about nine years in working out the details of his invention. Five of these had passed since he had taken out his patent, and he was still struggl...

James Watt was born at Greenock, on the Clyde, on the 19th of January, 1736. His parents were of the middle class, industrious, intelligent, and religious people, with a charact...

The invention of the steam-engine had advanced thus far with halting steps. A new power had been discovered, but it was so dangerous and unmanageable that it was still doubtful...

The manufacture of counterfeit money was very common at Birmingham about the middle of last century,--so common, indeed, that it had become an almost recognised branch of trade....

After the death of the Marquis of Worcester, the Marchioness, his widow, made various efforts to turn his inventions to account. Sceptical though the world was as to their utili...

Watt’s closing years--His pursuits--His machine for copying statuary--Medallions of his friends--His garret workshop--Mrs. Watt’s rule over her husband--Tenacious retention of h...

Watt withdraws from Soho--Boulton continues his interest in business--His patent for raising water--The burglary at Soho--Sir Walter Scott and Boulton--Watt in retirement--Searc...

First attempts to construct steamboats--All attempts fail until Watt’s condensing engine invented--The locomotive of Watt and Murdock--William Symington--His model locomotive--S...

Prosperity of Soho--Relaxed strain upon Boulton and Watt--Watt’s pleasure tours--His interview with the king at Windsor--Matthew Robinson Boulton, and James Watt, jun., join the...

Increasing debasement of the coinage--Punishments for counterfeiting--Birmingham coiners--Boulton refuses orders for base money--Executes a contract for coin for the East India...

Boulton’s action in commercial politics--His interview with Pitt--Agitation against Pitt’s commercial policy--The “Irish resolutions”--Watt on free commerce--Is opposed to polit...

Inefficiency of the Newcomen pumping-engines--More orders from Cornwall--Watt in Cornwall--United Mines district--Mines drowned--Watt and Jonathan Hornblower--Mrs. Watt’s accoun...

Robison and Watt’s conferences on the power of steam--Dr. Black and latent heat--Watt’s experiments on steam--His apparatus--The college model of the Newcomen engine arrives fro...

Financial position of the firm--Rotary engines for mills--Boulton’s battles with the Cornish adventurers--His life in Cornwall--Murdock and the miners--The Hornblowers’ engine a...

Water- and horse-power at Soho--Boulton’s correspondence with Benjamin Franklin concerning fire-engine--Boulton’s model--Correspondence with Dr. Darwin and Dr. Roebuck--Watt vis...

Watt’s introduction to Dr. Roebuck--Begins business as surveyor--Surveys canals--Partnership with Roebuck in the engine--Difficulties in constructing the engine--Watt’s visit to...

Lieutenant Henderson in Cornwall--Boulton’s financial embarrassments increase--Boulton and Fothergill--The “Soho pictures”--Watt’s letter-copying machine--Boulton pushes the mac...

Watt again visits Cornwall--Rotary motion--The crank-engine at Soho--Theft of the invention--Matthew Washborough--Smeaton and steam-power--Rotary-motion engine--Boulton and Watt...

Slow progress in invention of the steam-engine--Thomas Newcomen of Dartmouth--His study of steam-power--Correspondence with Dr. Hooke of the Royal Society--Newcomen’s experiment...

Glasgow in 1754--The Glasgow tobacco lords--The early clubs, and social habits of the merchants--Watt’s master--Leaves Glasgow, and proceeds to London on horseback--Is placed wi...

Watt’s house, Harper’s Hill--First order for engines--Boulton’s activity--The London engineers prophesy the failure of Watt’s engine--Watt revisits Glasgow--His second marriage-...

Characteristics of Matthew Boulton--Contrast between him and Watt--Boulton’s friends--Watt’s engine at Soho--Boulton’s views of engine business--The Kinneil engine re-erected at...

James Watt, his birthplace and lineage--His grandfather the mathematician--Cartsdyke and Greenock in the last century--James Watt’s father--His multifarious occupations--His mot...

Friends of Boulton and Watt--The Lunar Society--Provincial scientific societies--Distinguished associates of the Lunar Society--Dr. Darwin--Dr. Priestley, his gifts and accompli...

Birmingham in early times--Its industry--Roads--William Hutton--The Boulton family--Matthew Boulton begins business--His trade correspondence--His marriage--His love of business...

Anecdote of Matthew Boulton and George III.--Roger Bacon on steam power--Early inventors, their steam machines and apparatus--Hero of Alexandria, Branca, De Caus--The Marquis of...

Thomas Savery--The Savery family--Savery’s mechanical experiments and contrivances--His paddle-boat--Treatise on ‘Navigation Improved’--Cornish mines and the early pumping machi...

Zeal of the Marchioness of Worcester--Sir Samuel Morland--His pumps and fire-engines--His privations and death--Dr. Dionysius Papin--His digester--Experiments on the power of st...