[358] The first application of the “Gas-light and Coke Company” to Parliament in 1809 for an Act proved unsuccessful, but the “London and Westminster Chartered Gas-light and Coke Company” succeeded in the following year. The Company, however, did not succeed commercially, and was on the point of dissolution, when Mr. Clegg, a pupil of Murdock, bred at Soho, undertook the management and introduced new and improved apparatus. Mr. Clegg first lighted with gas Mr. Ackerman’s shop in the Strand in 1810, and it was regarded as a great novelty. One lady of rank was so much delighted with the brilliancy of the gas-lamp fixed on the shop counter, that she asked to be allowed to carry it home in her carriage, and offered any sum for a similar one. Mr. Winsor by his persistent advocacy of gas-lighting, did much to bring it into further notice; but it was Mr. Clegg’s practical ability that mainly led to its general adoption. When Westminster Bridge was first lit up with gas in 1812, the lamplighters were so disgusted with it that they struck work, and Mr. Clegg himself had to act as lamplighter.

[359] “It consisted,” says Mr. Buckle, “of a piston working in a cylinder 10 feet diameter in water, with a lift of 12 feet, and raised by forcing in air from a small blowing cylinder 12 inches diameter, 18 inches stroke, which was worked by the gearing in the boring-mill.” Paper read by the late William Buckle at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at Birmingham, 23rd October, 1850.

[360] Lockhart’s ‘Life of Scott,’ one vol. edition, p. 500.

[361] Mr. Buckle, in the memoir above cited, says,—“So completely was he absorbed at all times with the subject he had in hand, that he was quite regardless of everything else. When in London explaining to the brewers the nature of his substitute for isinglass, he occupied handsome apartments. He, however, little respected the splendour of his drawing-room, and, fancying himself in his laboratory at Soho, he proceeded with his experiments quite careless and unconscious of the mischief he was doing. One morning his landlady calling in to receive his orders, was horrified to see her magnificent paper-hangings covered with wet fish-skins hung up to dry; and he was caught in the act of pinning up a cod’s skin to undergo the same process. Whether the lady fainted or not is not on record, but the immediate ejectment of the gentleman and his fish was the consequence.”

[362] The young partners regarded him with a degree of affection and veneration, which often shows itself in their correspondence. Towards the later years of his life Mr. Murdock’s faculties gradually decayed, and he wholly retired from the business of Soho, dying at his house at Sycamore Hill, Handsworth, on the 15th Nov., 1839, in his 85th year.

[363] The first piece of iron-toothed gearing ever cast is placed on the lawn in front of Murdock’s villa. The teeth are of somewhat unequal form, and the casting is rough—perhaps it has been exposed to rough usage. It bears the following inscription:—“This Pinton was cast at Carron Ironworks for John Murdock, of Bellow Mill, Ayrshire, A.D. 1760, being the first tooth-gearing ever used in millwork in Great Britain.”

[364] The Symingtons, father and son, began at an early period to design improvements on Watt’s pumping-engine, and took out a patent for a fire-engine on a new principle as early as the year 1785. Watt heard of its progress from time to time; but he had no great opinion of the Symingtons, and treated their alleged invention with indifference. On the 28th September, 1787, he wrote Boulton,—“Isaac Perrins [a fitter] is returned from Scotland. He says Symington has invented a new engine, which is to work under 12½ lbs. on the inch and has got a patent for it, which Mr. M[eason] has paid for. By his account it seems to be on the same principle as the Trumpeters. As soon as they can rely fully on the new engine, the old one is to be pulled down, and Symington is to put up one of his in the house, and, on that answering, ours is to be stopped!”

[365] This interesting letter, so important as regards the early history of the invention of the steamboat, appeared for the first time in the supplementary volume to the ‘Official Description and Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition of 1851,’ to which it was contributed by Mr. W. C. Aitkin of Birmingham.

[366] ‘The Elevation, Section, Plans, and Views, of a Triple Vessel, and of Wheels, with Explanations of the Figures in the Engraving, and a short Account of the Properties and Advantages of the Invention.’ By Patrick Miller, Esq., of Dalswinton, Edinburgh, 1787.

[367] Mr. Miller’s statement to the Royal Society, 20th December, 1787.

[368] Boulton to Sir John Dalrymple, 26th March, 1788. The “one purpose” alluded to by Boulton is supposed to have been the Torpedo, then a favourite scheme with French inventors for blowing up English ships.

[369] Taylor to Miller, 20th August, 1788. ‘Supplementary Vol. to Official Description and Illustrated Catalogue of the Exhibition of 1851,’ p. 1473.

[370] Taylor to Miller, 20th August, 1788. ‘Supplementary Vol. to Official Description and Illustrated Catalogue of the Exhibition of 1851,’ p. 1473.

[371] The following contemporary account of the trial appeared in the ‘Scots Magazine’ for November, 1788:—“On October 14th, a boat was put in motion by a steam-engine upon Mr. Miller of Dalswinton’s piece of water at that place. That gentleman’s improvements in naval affairs are well known to the public. For some time past his attention has been turned to the application of the steam-engine to the purposes of navigation. He has now accomplished, and evidently shown to the world, the practicability of this, by executing it upon a small scale. A vessel, 25 feet long and 7 broad, was, on the above date, driven with two wheels by a small engine. It answered Mr. Miller’s expectations fully, and afforded great pleasure to the spectators. The success of this experiment is no small accession to the public. Its utility in canals, and all inland navigation, points it out to be of the greatest advantage, not only to this island, but to many other nations of the world. The engine used is Mr. Symington’s new patent engine.”

[372] From a memorandum found amongst Mr. Boulton’s papers, we learn that the following were the details of Symington’s engine:—“Engine hath two cylinders of 18 inches diameter each and 2 feet stroke. The rods of each piston are connected to a circular barrel of cast iron by means of chains, so that whilst one piston moves down the other ascends, and so gives the barrel a reciprocating motion. Upon the axis of the barrel is an arm or lever which works the plug and working gear. Each of the cylinders hath 2 pistons, one at top and the other at bottom; the 2 bottom pistons have their rods moving in stuffing-boxes and are connected together by a beam. The steam is admitted into the cylinder at its side, between the 2 pistons, and moves the one up and the other down; but the motion of the upper is greater than the under. When the upper piston is got to the top and the under one to the bottom, the steam valve is shut and the exhaustion one opened; by which the steam is admitted into the bottom of the cylinder, and is in its way met by a jet of cold water, which condenses it, and then it is squeezed out by the under piston, which in fact makes the bottom of the cylinder an air-pump. Whilst this condensation is going forward in the one cylinder, the steam is operating in the other, and vice versâ.”

[373] “I am now satisfied,” he said, “that Mr. Symington’s steam-engine is the most improper of all steam-engines for giving motion to a vessel, and that he does not know how to calculate frictions or mechanical powers. By means of a new well-constructed valve-wheel, and the pinion being doubled in diameter, I doubt not that the velocity of the vessel’s motion will be increased; but, do as you will, a great deal of power of the engine must be lost in friction. I remember well that when the small engine was wrought in the boat at Dalswinton, I had formed the same idea, and that I told you so; but not having studied the subject, I gave up my own common sense. This is now past remedy. As the engine cannot be of use to me now, I hope, with the aid of Mr. Tibbets and Mr. Stainton, you will get it sold before you leave Carron.”—Miller to Taylor, 7th December, 1789.

[374] J. Watt to R. Cullen, 24th April, 1790, ‘Supplementary Volume to Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Exhibition of 1851,’ p. 1475.

[375] One day in March, 1802, on the occasion of a strong west wind blowing, when the canal-boats could with difficulty be moved to windward, the steamer took in tow two laden sloops, the ‘Active’ and ‘Euphemia,’ of seventy tons each, from Lock 20 to Port Dundas, Glasgow, a distance of 19½ miles, in six hours.

[376] ‘A sketch of the Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation.’ By Bennet Woodcroft. London, 1848.

[377] Symington continued to struggle for many years under the burden of debt which he had incurred by his experiments; and though a sum of 100l. was granted him from the Privy Purse in 1824, and 50l. a year or two afterwards, he remained in a state of poverty during the rest of his life. He died on the 22nd March, 1831, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Botolph, Aldgate, London.

[378] The following deposition was made on oath by Robert Weir of Kincardine, before Robert Dundas J. P. for the county of Perth, at Blair Castle, on the 23rd October, 1824:—“That, in the year 1801, he remembers of Mr. Symington erecting a boat, and fitting a steam-engine into it, and dragging two vessels along the Forth and Clyde Canal by means of the said steamboat. That the deponent was employed as engine-fireman on board of the said boat. Deposes that the following persons, now living, were also on board, viz., Alexander Hart and John Allen, ship-builders, Grangemouth, and John Esplin and William Gow, shipmasters there. That some time after the first experiment, while the boat was lying upon the canal at Lock 16, it was visited by a stranger, who requested to see the boat worked. That the said William Symington desired the deponent to light the furnace, which was done, and the stranger was carried about four miles along the canal, and brought back. That this stranger made inquiries both as to the mode of constructing and of working the boat, and took notes of the information given him by the said William Symington. That the deponent heard the stranger say his name was Fulton, and that he was a native of the United States of America. That the deponent remembers Mr. Symington remarking that the progress of the boat was much impeded by the narrowness of the canal, to which Mr. Fulton answered that the objection would not apply to the large rivers of North America, where he thought the boat might be used to great advantage.”—From copies of affidavits in the ‘Biography of William Symington.’ By J. and W. R. Rankin, Engineers, Falkirk, 1862.

[379] In one of his letters, Bell says—“Fulton came at different times to the country and stopped with me for some time.”—‘Life of Henry Bell,’ p. 74.

[380] Cited in Muirhead’s ‘Life of James Watt,’ 2nd ed. p. 426.

[381] Boulton to Lord Hawkesbury, 22nd August, 1803. Boulton MSS.

[382] It is stated in the ‘Life of Henry Bell,’ that he applied to Mr. Watt in the year 1801, for his advice as to a suitable engine for a steamboat; but Watt gave him no encouragement to proceed with his design. “How many noblemen, gentlemen, and engineers,” he wrote to Bell, “have puzzled their brains, and spent their thousands of pounds, and none of these, nor yourself, have been able to bring the power of steam in navigation to a successful issue.”—‘Life of Bell.’ By E. Morris, Glasgow, 1844, p. 30.

[383] The starting of the ‘Comet’ naturally excited great interest along the Clyde. In the evenings, thousands of spectators lined the banks as far as Govan to see her pass up from Greenock. The masters of the old sailing craft, however, regarded the ‘Comet’ with apprehension and dismay. The old Highland gabert men were especially hostile, denouncing the new vessel as being impelled by the “teevil’s wun” (devil’s wind). The story is told of the steamer one day coming up with a fly boat tacking against the tide, when the crew began to jeer the skipper of the fly, calling upon him to come along with his lazy craft. “Get oot o’ my sight,” he cried, in reply, “I’m just gaun as it pleases the breath o’ the Almichty, and I’ll ne’er fash my thumb how fast ye gang wi’ your blasted deevil’s reek.”

[384] Boulton to Dumergue, 25th December, 1800.

[385] Lockhart’s ‘Life of Scott.’ 8vo. ed. p. 457. One of Scott’s visits to Soho was made in company with his wife in the spring of 1803. Boulton was so pleased with the visit, that he urged Scott, or at least his wife, to repeat it, which produced the following letter, dated London, 13th May, 1803:—

[386] Watt to M. Robinson Boulton, 9th September, 1799.

[387] Watt to M. Robinson Boulton, 26th September, 1799.

[388] Boulton to Watt, 10th October, 1802. One of Boulton’s objects in making his contemplated journey to Paris, was to undertake the erection of coining machinery for the French Government, who were about to recoin the whole of their gold, silver, and copper money. With their imperfect machinery, he calculated that it would take them nearly twenty years to accomplish this; whereas with his new machinery he could undertake to turn out a thousand million of pieces in three years. He communicated to Watt, that he had been making experiments as to the maximum speed of his coining machines, worked by the steam-engine, and found that he could regularly strike fifty-three of his copper pieces or fifty-six English crown-pieces per minute, while he could with one press in collars also regularly strike India copper pieces of half the diameter at the rate of 106 to 112 per minute, or from 6360 to 6720 pieces per hour; but when pieces of half an inch diameter were wanted he had recourse to his new small press, with which he could strike from 150 to 200 pieces per minute! “My presses,” said he, “are far more exact and more durable, and my means of working them are now infinitely beyond anything they (the French coiners) have ever thought of, and my mint is now in far better order than ever.”

[389] Watt to Boulton, 23rd November, 1802.

[390] Robison to Watt, 3rd February, 1797.

[391] Cited in Muirhead’s ‘Origin and Progress of the Mechanical Inventions of James Watt,’ ii. 264

[392] Lord Cockburn’s ‘Memorials,’ 51.

[393] It is a remarkable fact that Dr. Priestley was regarded with as much suspicion in America as he had been in England. The American government looked upon him as a spy in the interest of France; and he had great difficulty in forming a Unitarian congregation. The horror of the French Revolution, which had extended to America, was the cause of the hostile feeling displayed towards him. “The change that has taken place,” he said, in a letter dated 6th September, 1798, “is indeed hardly credible, as I have done nothing to provoke resentment; but, being a citizen of France, and a friend to the Revolution, is sufficient. I asked one of the more moderate of the party whether he thought, if Dr. Price, the great friend of their own Revolution, were alive, he would now be allowed to come into this country. He said, he believed he would not!”—In 1801 Dr. Priestley, by deed of trust, appointed Matthew Boulton, Samuel Galton, and Wm. Vaughan, Esqrs., trustees for Mrs. Finch (his daughter) and her children, in respect of 1200l. invested for their benefit in public securities.

[394] Beattie’s ‘Life of Campbell,’ i. 112.

[395] Letter to M. R. Morehead, 7th May, 1796.

[396] Paris’s ‘Life of Davy,’ i. 48–9.

[397] ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ xcix. 279.

[398] J. Watt, jun., to M. R. Boulton, 8th June, 1804.

[399] Watt to Boulton, Sidmouth, 14th October, 1804.

[400] Watt to Boulton, Exeter, 22nd October, 1804.

[401] Paris’s ‘Life of Davy,’ i. 198–200.

[402] Cited in Muirhead’s ‘Mechanical Inventions of James Watt,—Correspondence,’ ii. 269.

[403] One of these, thrown out in a letter to Watt, may be mentioned—a speculation since revived by the late Dr. S. Brown of Edinburgh,—the transmutation of bodies. “These are wonderful steps,” said he, “which are every day making in chemical analysis. The analysis of the alkalis and alkaline earths by Guyton, by Henry, and others, will presently lead, I think, to the doctrine of a reciprocal convertibility of all things into all. It brings to mind a minister lecturing on the first chapter of one of the Gospels, when, after reading, ‘Adam begat Abel, and Abel begat,’ &c.,—to save himself the trouble of so many cramp names, he said, ‘and so they all begat one another to the 15th verse.’ I expect to see alchemy revive, and be as universally studied as ever.”

[404] Watt to Boulton, 13th May, 1804.

[405] Watt to Boulton, 14th October, 1804.

[406] De Luc to Boulton, Windsor Castle, 25th January, 1807. It had been arranged that George III., the Queen, and the Princesses, should pay a visit to Soho in 1805, though the King had by that time become quite blind. When told of Boulton’s illness, and that he was confined to bed, his Majesty replied, “Then I will visit Mr. Boulton in his sick-chamber” (MS. Memoir by Mr. Keir). The royal visit was eventually put off, the Council advising that the King should go direct to Weymouth and nowhere else.

[407] The following is the inscription on the mural monument erected to his memory in the side aisle of Handsworth Church, in the composition of which James Watt assisted:—

[408] The monument to Boulton is on the left hand of the altar in the above illustration; that of Murdock is opposite to it, on the right.

[409] Isaac Perrins was one of the most noted among the fighters of Soho. Mr. Scale, a partner in the hardware business, wrote to Mr. Boulton, then at Cosgarne (15th October, 1782),—“Perrins has had a battle with the famous Jemmy Sargent for a hundred guineas, in which Perrins came off conqueror without a fall or hurt: in 13 rounds he knocked down his antagonist 13 times. They had it out at Colemore on our Wake Monday. The Sohoites all returned with blue cockades.” Mrs. Watt, in a gossipy letter to Mr. Boulton of the same date, says “1500l. was betted against Perrins at Birmingham, and lost.” Perrins’s success led him to turn “professional bruiser” for a time, and he left his place in the smith’s shop. But either not succeeding in his new business, or finding the work harder than that of the smithy, he came back to Soho, and, being a good workman, he was taken on again and remained in Boulton’s employment till the close of his life, leaving sons to succeed him in the same department.

[410] Boulton to De Luc, 20th October, 1787.

[411] The MS. memoir is dated Glasgow the 17th September, 1809, at which period Watt was in his 73rd year. It had evidently been written at the request of M. Robinson Boulton, Esq., shortly after his father’s death. We find various testimony to the same effect as the above in the Soho papers. Thus Mr. Peter Ewart, C.E., speaks of Mr. Boulton’s remarkable quickness in selecting objects to which machinery might be applied with advantage, and of his great promptitude and determination in carrying his plans into effect. He also describes the contagiousness of his example, which strengthened the weak and inspired the timid. “He possessed,” says Mr. Ewart, “above all other men I have ever known, the faculty of inspiring others with a portion of that ardent zeal with which he himself pursued every important object he had in view; and it was impossible to be near him without becoming warmly interested in the success of his enterprises. The urbanity of his manners, and his great kindness to young people in particular, never failed to leave the most agreeable impression on the minds of all around him; and most truly may it be said that he reigned in the hearts of those that were in his employment.”—Boulton MSS.

[412] Boulton to M. Vanlinder, Rotterdam, 24th April, 1788.

[413] “Though I was in some measure prepared,” he wrote, “yet I had hoped that he might have recovered from this fit, as he has done from other severe ones. Such wishes, however, were selfish; for in respect to himself, none of his friends could rationally have desired the prolongation of a life which has long been passed in torture, without hope of relief. May he therefore rest in peace; and when our end approaches, may we have as little to reproach us and as much to console us as he had.”—Mr. Watt to his son, 22nd August, 1809. Boulton MSS.

[414] Watt to M. Robinson Boulton, 23rd August, 1809.

[415] Lord Brougham’s ‘Lives of Philosophers of the Time of George III.’ The Friday Club of Edinburgh was so called because of the evening of the week on which it met and supped. It numbered amongst its members Professor Playfair, Walter Scott, Henry Brougham, Francis Jeffrey, Leonard Horner, Lord Corehouse, Sir W. Drummond, and others known to fame. Watt was a regular attender of the Club during his Edinburgh visits.

[416] In March, 1811, he wrote Dr. P. Wilson as follows:—“For want of other news I must now say a little upon my late invention, with which Dr. Herschel seemed much pleased. It continues to succeed, and I have realised some more of my ideas on the subject. I have executed several small busts in alabaster, not being strong enough to work in marble. I had a difficulty in getting the several segments which form the surface of the bust to meet, but have now accomplished it. It requires a very accurate construction of the machine, and a very accurate adjustment of the tools, so that their axes may be always equally distant from each other, as the axes of the pattern and that of the stone to be cut are. I have also made some improvements in the tools for cutting marble and other hard stones. The things you saw were done by the tool and the guide-point, moving in parallel lines, straight or circular, and very near one another; (an illustration of Euclid’s position, that the motion of a point generates a line, and the motion of a line generates a surface). I have now contrived, though not executed, that the two points, the guide and the cutting point, may move in any line, whether straight or crooked, square or diagonal, so that an inscription might be cut in stone from a drawing on paper.”—Cited in Muirhead’s ‘Mechanical Inventions of James Watt,’ ii. 329–30.

[417] Cited in Muirhead’s ‘Mechanical Inventions,’ &c., ii. 340–1. These drawings must be in existence, and of great interest, as showing the vigour of Watt’s inventive faculty at this late period of his life.

[418] In 1808 Mr. Watt made over 300l. to the College by Deed of Gift, for the purpose of founding a prize for students in Natural Science, as some acknowledgment of “the many favours” which the College had conferred upon him.—In 1816 he gave to the Town of Greenock 100l. for the purpose of purchasing books for the Mathematical School. “My intention in this donation,” he observed in his letter to Mr. Anderson of Greenock, “is to form the beginning of a scientific library, for the instruction of the youth of Greenock; and I hope it will prompt others to add to it, and to render my townsmen as eminent for their knowledge as they are for their spirit of enterprise.” Watt’s idea has since been carried out by his townsmen, and the Watt Library is now one of the most valuable institutions of Greenock. It ought to be added, that the erection of the building was mainly due to the munificence of Mr. Watt’s son, the late James Watt, Esq., of Aston Hall, near Birmingham. A marble statue of Watt, by Chantrey, is placed in the Library, with an inscription from the pen of Lord Jeffrey.

[419] Answer by the author of ‘Waverley’ to the Epistle Dedicatory of ‘The Monastery.’

[420] ‘Autobiography of Mrs. Schimmelpenninck,’ 3rd ed. 35.

[421] The following anecdote is told by Mrs. Schimmelpenninck:—“During the peace of Amiens, Mr. Watt visited Paris. It so happened that while going through one of the palaces, I believe the Tuileries, a French housemaid appeared much perplexed concerning some bright English stoves which had just been received, and which she did not know how to clean. An English gentleman was standing by, to whom she appealed for information. This was Charles James Fox. He could give no help; “But,” said he, “here is a fellow-countryman of mine who will tell you all about it.” This was Mr. Watt, to whom he was at the moment talking; and who proceeded to give the housemaid full instructions as to the best mode of cleaning her grate. This anecdote I have often heard Mrs. Watt tell with great diversion.”

[422] Lord Brougham says, “His voice was deep and low, and if somewhat monotonous, it yet seemed in harmony with the weight and the beauty of his discourse, through which, however, there also ran a current of a lighter kind; for he was mirthful, temperately jocular, nor could anything to more advantage set off the living anecdotes of men and things, with which the grave texture of his talk was interwoven, than his sly and quiet humour, both of mind and look, in recounting them.”—‘Lives of Philosophers of the Time of George III.’

[423] “I remember, as a young girl,” she says, “the pleasant dinners and people I have seen at Soho. I remember being present one day when Bertrand de Moleville, the exiled minister of Louis XVI., left the dinner-table to make an omelette, which was, of course, pronounced ‘excellent.’ That man then gave me a lifelong lesson,—of the power of enjoyment and of giving pleasure by his cheerful bright manner and conversation, under such sad circumstances as exile and poverty. I looked at him with great admiration, and I have his face distinct before me now, though I saw him only that once.”

[424] The following is the inscription:—

[425] E. M. Bataille, ‘Traité des Machines à Vapeur.’ Paris, 1847–9.

[426] What the steam-engine has done for the West is well known. What is yet expected from it in the East may be gathered from the few pregnant words lately uttered by Hassan Ali Khan, Persian Ambassador at the Court of France, at the recent celebration in Paris of a national festival instituted nineteen centuries before the birth of Christ. Having recalled the minds of his hearers to the early fire worship of his country, which sprang from the primeval idolatry, he proceeded to say that it was still to Fire that he fondly looked for the regeneration of Persia. Fire had changed the face of Europe. In the steam-engine, the railroad, the electric spark, the screw or paddle ship, far more than in gunpowder or rifled cannon, fire was the great benefactor that would bless one day the land of his forefathers, who had instinctively worshipped that element in secret anticipation of what was to come.