From this it will be seen how anxious Watt was to engage Boulton in taking an interest in his invention. But though the fly was artfully cast over the nose of the fish, still he would not rise. The times were out of joint, business was stagnant, and Boulton was of necessity cautious about venturing upon new enterprises. Small doubtless communicated the views thus confidentially conveyed to him by Watt; and in his next letter he again pressed him to come to Birmingham and have a personal interview with Boulton as to the engine, adding, “bring this pretty girl with you when you come.” But, instead of Watt, Roebuck himself went to see Boulton on the subject. During the time of this visit, Watt again communicated to Small his anxiety that Boulton should join in the partnership. “As for myself,” said he, “I shall say nothing; but if you three can agree among yourselves, you may appoint me what share you please, and you will find me willing to do my best to advance the good of the whole; or, if this [the engine] should not succeed, to do any other thing I can to make you all amends, only reserving to myself the liberty of grumbling when I am in an ill humour.”[119]

Small’s reply was discouraging. Both Boulton and he had just engaged in another scheme, which would require all the ready money at their command. Possibly the ill-success of the experiment Watt had by this time made with his new model at Kinneil may have had some influence in deterring them from engaging in what still looked a very unpromising speculation. Watt was greatly cast down at this intelligence, though he could not blame his friend for the caution he displayed in the matter.[120] He nevertheless again returned to the subject in his letters to Small; and at last Boulton was persuaded to enter into a conditional arrangement with Roebuck, which was immediately communicated to Watt, who received the intelligence with great exultation. “I shake hands,” he wrote to Small, “with you and Mr. Boulton in our connexion, which I hope will prove agreeable to us all.” His joy, however, proved premature, as it turned out that the agreement was only to the effect, that if Boulton thought proper to exercise the option of becoming a partner in the engine to the extent of one-third, he was to do so within a period of twelve months, paying Roebuck a sum of 1000l.; but this option Boulton never exercised, and the engine enterprise seemed to be as far from success as ever.

In the mean time Watt became increasingly anxious about his own position. He had been spending more money on fruitless experiments, and getting into more debt. The six months he had been living at Kinneil had brought him in nothing. He had been neglecting his business, and could not afford to waste more time in prosecuting an apparently hopeless speculation. He accordingly returned to his regular work, and proceeded with the survey of the river Clyde, at the instance of the Glasgow Corporation. “I would not have meddled with this,” he wrote to Dr. Small, “had I been certain of being able to bring the engine to bear. But I cannot, on an uncertainty, refuse every piece of business that offers. I have refused some common fire-engines, because they must have taken my attention so up as to hinder my going on with my own. However, if I cannot make it answer soon, I shall certainly undertake the next that offers, for I cannot afford to trifle away my whole life, which—God knows—may not be long. Not that I think myself a proper hand for keeping men to their duty; but I must use my endeavours to make myself square with the world, though I much fear I never shall.”[121]

Small lamented this apparent abandonment of the engine to its fate. But though he had failed in inducing Boulton heartily to join Watt in the enterprise, he did not yet despair. He continued to urge Watt to complete his engine, as the fourteen years for which the patent lasted would soon be gone. At all events he might send drawings of his engine to Soho; and Mr. Boulton and he would undertake to do their best to have one constructed for the purpose of exhibiting its powers.[122] To this Watt agreed, and about the beginning of 1770, the necessary drawings were sent to Soho, and an engine was immediately put in course of execution. Patterns were made and sent to Coalbrookdale to be cast; but when the castings were received, they were found exceedingly imperfect, and were thrown aside as useless. They were then sent to an ironfounder at Bilston to be executed; but the result was only another failure.

About the beginning of 1770, another unsuccessful experiment was made by Watt and Roebuck with the engine at Kinneil. The cylinder had been repaired and made true by beating, but as the metal of which it was made was soft, it was feared that the working of the piston might throw it out of form. To prevent this, two firm parallel planes were fixed, through which the piston worked, in order to prevent its vibration. “If this should fail,” Roebuck wrote to Boulton, in giving an account of the intended trial, “then the cylinder must be made of cast-iron. But I have great confidence that the present engine will work completely, and by this day se’nnight you may expect to hear the result of our experiments.”[123] The good news, however, never went to Birmingham; on the contrary, the trial proved a failure. There was some more tinkering at the engine, but it would not work satisfactorily; and Watt went back to Glasgow with a heavy heart.

Small again endeavoured to induce Watt to visit Birmingham, to superintend the erection of the engine, the materials for which were now lying at Soho. He also held out to Watt the hope of obtaining some employment for him in the midland counties as a consulting engineer. But Watt could not afford to lose more time in erecting trial-engines; and he was too much occupied at Glasgow to leave it for the proposed uncertainty at Birmingham. He accordingly declined the visit, but invited Small to continue the correspondence; “for,” said he, “we have abundance of matters to discuss, though the damned engine sleep in quiet.” Small wrote back, professing himself satisfied that Watt was so fully employed in his own profession at Glasgow. “Let nothing,” he said, “divert you from the business of engineering. You are sensible that both Boulton and I engaged in the patent scheme much more from inclination to be in some degree useful to you than from any other principle; so that if you are prosperous and happy, we do not care whether you find the scheme worth prosecuting or not.”[124] Replying to Small’s complaint of himself, that he felt ennuyé and stupid, taking pleasure in nothing but sleep, Watt said: “You complain of physic; I find it sufficiently stupifying to be obliged to think on any subject but one’s hobby; and I really am become monstrously stupid, and can seldom think at all. I wish to God I could afford to live without it; though I don’t admire your sleeping scheme. I must fatigue myself, otherwise I can neither eat nor sleep. In short, I greatly doubt whether the silent mansion of the grave be not the happiest abode. I am cured of most of my youthful desires, and if ambition or avarice do not lay hold of me, I shall be almost as much ennuyé as you say you are.”[125]

Small again recurred to the subject of Watt’s removal to Birmingham, informing him that he had provided accommodation for him, “having kept a whole house in my power, in hopes you may come to live here.”

Watt’s prospects were, however, brightening. He was then busily occupied in superintending the construction of the Monkland Canal. He wrote Small that he had a hundred men working under him, who had “made a confounded gash in a hill,” at which they had been working for twelve months; that by frugal living he had contrived to save money enough to pay his debts, and that he had plenty of remunerative work before him. He had also become concerned in a pottery, which, he said, “does very well, though we make monstrous bad ware.”[126] He had not, indeed, got rid of his headaches, though he was not so much afflicted by low spirits as he had been. But he confessed that after all he hated the business of engineering, and wished himself well rid of it, for the reasons stated in a preceding chapter.

This comparatively prosperous state of Watt’s affairs did not, however, last long. The commercial panic of 1772 put a sudden stop to most of the canal schemes then on foot. The proprietors of the Monkland Canal could not find the necessary means for carrying on the works, and Watt consequently lost his employment as their engineer. He was thus again thrown upon the world, and where was he to look for help? Naturally enough, he reverted to his engine. But it was in the hands of Dr. Roebuck, who was overwhelmed with debt, and upon the verge of insolvency. It was clear that no help was to be looked for in that quarter. Again he bethought him of Small’s invitations to Birmingham, and of the interest that Boulton had taken in the engine scheme. Could he be induced at last to become a partner? He again broached the subject to Small, telling him how business had failed him; that he was now ready to go to Birmingham and engage in English surveys, or do anything that would bring him in an honest income. But, above all, would Boulton and Small, now that Roebuck had failed, join him as partners in the engine business?

By this time Boulton himself had become involved in difficulties arising out of the commercial pressure of the time, and was more averse than ever to enter upon such an enterprise. But having lent Roebuck a considerable sum of money, it occurred to Watt that the amount might be taken as part of the price of Boulton’s share in the patent, if he would consent to enter into the proposed partnership. He represented to Small the great distress of Roebuck’s situation, which he had done all that he could to relieve. “What little I can do for him,” he said, “is purchased by denying myself the conveniences of life my station requires, or by remaining in debt, which it galls me to the bone to owe.” Reverting to the idea of a partnership with Boulton, he added, “I shall be content to hold a very small share in it, or none at all, provided I am to be freed from my pecuniary obligations to Roebuck, and have any kind of recompense for even a part of the anxiety and ruin it has involved me in.” And again: “Although I am out of pocket a much greater sum upon these experiments than my proportion of the profits of the engine, I do not look upon that money as the price of my share, but as money spent on my education. I thank God I have now reason to believe that I can never, while I have health, be at any loss to pay what I owe, and to live at least in a decent manner; more, I do not violently desire.”[127]

In a subsequent letter Watt promised Small that he would pay an early visit to Birmingham, and added, “there is nowhere I so much wish to be.” In replying, Small pointed out a difficulty in the way of the proposed partnership: “It is impossible,” he wrote, “for Mr. Boulton and me, or any other honest man, to purchase, especially from two particular friends, what has no market price, and at a time when they might be inclined to part with the commodity at an under value.”[128] He added that the high-pressure wheel-engine constructing at Soho, after Watt’s plans, was nearly ready, and that Wilkinson, of Bradley, had promised that the boiler should be sent next week. “Should the experiment succeed, or seem likely to succeed,” he said, “you ought to come hither immediately upon receiving the notice, which I will instantly send. In that case we propose to unite three things under your direction, which would altogether, we hope, prove tolerably satisfactory to you, at least until your merit shall be better known.”[129]

But before the experiment with the wheel-engine could be tried at Soho, the financial ruin of Dr. Roebuck brought matters to a crisis. He was now in the hands of his creditors, who found his affairs in inextricable confusion. He owed some 1200l. to Boulton, who, rather than claim against the estate, offered to take Roebuck’s two-thirds share in the engine patent in lieu of the debt. The creditors did not value the engine as worth one farthing, and were but too glad to agree to the proposal. As Watt himself said, it was only “paying one bad debt with another.” Boulton wrote to Watt requesting him to act as his attorney in the matter. He confessed that he was by no means sanguine as to the success of the engine, but, being an assayer, he was willing “to assay it and try how much gold it contains.” “The thing,” he added, “is now a shadow; ’tis merely ideal, and will cost time and money to realise it. We have made no experiment yet that answers my purpose, and the times are so horrible throughout the mercantile part of Europe, that I have not had my thoughts sufficiently disengaged to think of new schemes.”[130]

So soon as the arrangement for the transfer of Roebuck’s share to Boulton was concluded, Watt ordered the engine in the outhouse at Kinneil to be taken to pieces, packed up, and sent to Birmingham.[131] Small again pressed him to come and superintend the work in person. But before he could leave Scotland it was necessary that he should complete the survey of the Caledonian Canal, which was still unfinished. This done, he promised at once to set out for Soho. In any case, he had made up his mind to leave his own country, of which he declared himself “heart-sick.”[132] He hated its harsh climate, so trying to his fragile constitution. Moreover, he disliked the people he had to deal with. He was also badly paid for his work, a whole year’s surveying having brought him in only about 200l. Out of this he had paid some portion to Dr. Roebuck to help him in his necessity, “so that,” he said, “I can barely support myself and keep untouched the small sum I have allotted for my visit to you.”[133]

Watt’s intention was either to try to find employment as a surveyor or engineer in England, or obtain a situation of some kind abroad. He was, however, naturally desirous of ascertaining whether it was yet possible to do anything with the materials which now lay at Soho; and with the object of visiting his friends there and superintending the erection of the trial-engine, he at length made his final arrangements to leave Glasgow. We find him arrived in Birmingham in May, 1774, where he at once entered on a new and important phase of his professional career.

CHAPTER XI.
Boulton and Watt—Their Partnership.

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 struggling with difficulty. Several thousand pounds had been expended on the engine, besides much study, labour, and ingenuity; yet it was still, as Boulton expressed it, “a shadow, as regarded its practical utility and value.” So long as Watt’s connexion with Roebuck continued, there was indeed very little chance of getting it favourably introduced to public notice. What it was yet to become as a working power depended in no small degree upon the business ability, the strength of purpose, and the length of purse of his new partner.

Had Watt searched Europe through, probably he could not have found a man better fitted than Matthew Boulton for bringing his invention fairly before the world. Many would have thought it rash on the part of the latter, burdened as he was with heavy liabilities, to engage in a new undertaking of so speculative a character. Feasible though the scheme might be, it was an admitted fact that nearly all the experiments with the models heretofore made had proved failures. It is true Watt firmly believed that he had hit upon the right principle, and he was as sanguine as ever of the eventual success of his engine. But though inventors are usually sanguine, men of capital do not take up their schemes on that account. Capitalists are rather disposed to regard sanguine inventors as visionaries, full of theories of what is possible rather than of well-defined plans of what is practicable and useful.

Boulton, however, amongst his many other gifts possessed an admirable knowledge of character. His judgment of men was almost unerring. In Watt he had recognised at his first visit to Soho, not only a man of original inventive genius, but a plodding, earnest, intent, and withal an exceedingly modest man; not given to puff, but on the contrary rather disposed to underrate the merit of his inventions. Different though their characters were in most respects, Boulton at once conceived a hearty liking for him. The one displayed in perfection precisely those qualities which the other wanted. Boulton was a man of ardent and generous temperament, bold and enterprising, undaunted by difficulty, and possessing an almost boundless capacity for work. He was a man of great tact, clear perception, and sound judgment. Moreover, he possessed that indispensable quality of perseverance, without which the best talents are of comparatively little avail in the conduct of important affairs. While Watt hated business, Boulton loved it. He had, indeed, a genius for business,—a gift almost as rare as that for poetry, for art, or for war. He possessed a marvellous power of organisation. With a keen eye for details he combined a comprehensive grasp of intellect. While his senses were so acute, that when sitting in his office at Soho he could detect the slightest stoppage or derangement in the machinery of that vast establishment, and send his message direct to the spot where it had occurred, his power of imagination was such as enabled him to look clearly along extensive lines of possible action in Europe, America, and the East. For there is a poetic as well as a commonplace side to business; and the man of business genius lights up the humdrum routine of daily life by exploring the boundless region of possibility wherever it may lie open before him.

Boulton had already won his way to the very front rank in his calling, honestly and honourably; and he was proud of it. He had created many new branches of industry, which gave regular employment to hundreds of families. He had erected and organised a manufactory which was looked upon as one of the most complete of its kind in England, and was resorted to by visitors from all parts of the world. But Boulton was more than a man of business: he was a man of culture, and the friend of cultivated men. His hospitable mansion at Soho was the resort of persons eminent in art, in literature, and in science; and the love and admiration with which he inspired such men affords one of the best proofs of his own elevation of character. Among the most intimate of his friends and associates were Richard Lovell Edgeworth,[134] a gentleman of fortune, enthusiastically devoted to his long-conceived design of moving land-carriages by steam; Captain Keir, an excellent practical chemist, a wit and a man of learning; Dr. Small, the accomplished physician, chemist, and mechanist; Josiah Wedgwood, the practical philosopher and manufacturer, founder of a new and important branch of skilled industry; Thomas Day, the ingenious author of ‘Sandford and Merton;’ Dr. Darwin, the poet-physician; Dr. Withering, the botanist; besides others who afterwards joined the Soho circle,—not the least distinguished of whom were Joseph Priestley and James Watt.[135]

Boulton could not have been very sanguine at first as to the success of Watt’s engine. There were a thousand difficulties in the way of getting it introduced to general use. The principal one was the difficulty of finding workmen capable of making it. Watt had been constantly worried by “villanous bad workmen,” who failed to make any model that would go properly. It mattered not that the principle of the engine was right; if its construction was beyond the skill of ordinary handicraftsmen, the invention was practically worthless. The great Smeaton was of this opinion. When he saw the first model working at Soho, he admitted the excellence of the contrivance, but predicted its failure, on the ground that it was too complicated, and that workmen were not to be found capable of manufacturing it on any large scale for general uses.

Watt himself felt that, if the engine was ever to have a fair chance, it was now; and that if Boulton, with his staff of skilled workmen at command, could not make it go, the scheme must be abandoned henceforward as impracticable. Boulton must, however, have seen the elements of success in the invention, otherwise he would not have taken up with it. He knew the difficulties Watt had encountered in designing it, and he could well appreciate the skill with which he had overcome them; for Boulton himself, as we have seen, had for some time been occupied with the study of the subject. But the views of Boulton on entering into his new branch of business, cannot be better expressed than in his own words, as stated in a letter written by him to Watt in 1769, when then invited to join the Roebuck partnership:—

He went on to state that he was willing to enter upon the speculation with these views, considering it well worth his while “to make engines for all the world,” though it would not be worth his while “to make for three counties only;” besides, he declared himself averse to embark in any trade that he had not the inspection of himself. He concluded by saying, “ Although there seem to be some obstructions to our partnership in the engine trade, yet I live in hopes that you or I may hit upon some scheme or other that may associate us in this part of the world, which would render it still more agreeable to me than it is, by the acquisition of such a neighbour.”[137]

Five years had passed since this letter was written, during which the engine had made no way in the world. The partnership of Roebuck and Watt had yielded nothing but vexation and debt; until at last, fortunately for Watt—though at the time he regarded it as a terrible calamity—Roebuck broke down, and the obstruction was removed which had prevented Watt and Boulton from coming together. The latter at once reverted to the plan of action which he had with so much sagacity laid down in 1769; and he invited Watt to take up his abode at Soho until the necessary preliminary arrangements could be made. He thought it desirable, in the first place, to erect the engine, of which the several parts had been sent to Soho from Kinneil, in order, if possible, to exhibit a specimen of the invention in actual work. Boulton undertook to defray all the necessary expenses, and to find competent workmen to carry out the instructions of Watt, whom Boulton was also to maintain until the engine business had become productive.[138]

The materials brought from Kinneil were accordingly put together with as little delay as possible; and, thanks to the greater skill of the workmen who assisted in its erection, the engine, when finished, worked in a more satisfactory manner than it had ever done before. In November, 1774, Watt wrote Dr. Roebuck, informing him of the success of his trials; on which the Dr. expressed his surprise that the engine should have worked at all, “considering the slightness of the materials and its long exposure to the injuries of the weather.” Watt also wrote to his father at Greenock. “The business I am here about has turned out rather successful; that is to say, the fire-engine I have invented is now going, and answers much better than any other that has yet been made; and I expect that the invention will be very beneficial to me.”[139] Such was Watt’s modest announcement of the successful working of the engine on which such great results depended.

Much, however, remained to be done before either Watt or Boulton could reap any benefit from the invention. Six years out of the fourteen for which the patent was originally taken had already expired; and all that had been accomplished was the erection of this experimental engine at Soho. What further period might elapse before capitalists could be brought to recognise the practical uses of the invention could only be guessed at; but the probability was that the patent right would expire long before such a demand for the engines arose as should remunerate Boulton and Watt for their investment of time, labour, and capital. And the patent once expired, the world at large would be free to make the engines, though Watt himself had not recovered one farthing towards repaying him for the long years of experiment, study, and ingenuity bestowed by him in bringing his invention to perfection. These considerations made Boulton hesitate before launching out the money necessary to provide the tools, machinery, and buildings, for carrying on the intended manufacture on a large scale and in the best style.

When it became known that Boulton had taken an interest in a new engine for pumping water, he had many inquiries about it from the mining districts. The need of a more effective engine than any then in use was every year becoming more urgent. The powers of Newcomen’s engine had been tried to the utmost. So long as the surface-lodes were worked, its power was sufficient to clear the mines of water; but as they were carried deeper, it was found totally inadequate for the work, and many mines were consequently becoming gradually drowned out and abandoned. The excessive consumption of coals by the Newcomen engines was another serious objection to their use, especially in districts such as Cornwall, where coal was very dear. When Small was urging Watt to come to Birmingham and make engines, he wrote: “A friend of Boulton’s, in Cornwall, sent us word a few days ago that four or five copper-mines are just going to be abandoned because of the high price of coals, and begs us to apply to them instantly. The York Buildings Company delay rebuilding their engine, with great inconvenience to themselves, waiting for yours. Yesterday application was made to me by a Mining Company in Derbyshire to know when you are to be in England about the engines, because they must quit their mine if you cannot relieve them.” The necessity for an improved pumping power had set many inventors to work besides Watt, and some of the less scrupulous of them were already trying to adopt his principle in such a way as to evade his patent. Moore, the London linendraper, and Hatley, one of Watt’s Carron workmen, had brought out and were pushing engines similar to Watt’s; the latter having stolen and sold for a considerable sum working drawings of the Kinneil engine.

From these signs Boulton saw that, in the event of the engine proving successful, he and his partner would have to defend the invention against a host of pirates; and he became persuaded that he would not be justified in risking his capital in the establishment of a steam-engine manufactory unless a considerable extension of the patent-right could be secured. To ascertain whether this was practicable, Watt proceeded to London in the beginning of 1775, to confer with his patent agent and take the opinion of counsel on the subject. Mr. Wedderburn, who was advised with, recommended that the existing patent should be surrendered, and in that case he did not doubt that a new one would be granted. While in London, Watt looked out for possible orders for his engine: “I have,” he wrote Boulton, “a prospect of two orders for fire-engines here, one to water Piccadilly, and the other to serve the south end of Blackfriars Bridge with water. I have taken advice of several people whom I could trust about the patent. They all agree that an Act would be much better and cheaper, a patent being now 130l., the Act, if obtainable, 110l. The present patent has eight years still to run, bearing date January, 1769. I understand there will be an almost unlimited sale for wheel-engines to the West Indies, at the rate of 100l. for each horse’s power.”[140]

Watt also occupied some of his time in London in superintending the adjustment of weights manufactured by Boulton and Fothergill, then sold in considerable quantities through their London agent. That he continued to take an interest in his old business of mathematical instrument making is apparent from the visits which he made to several well-known shops. One of the articles which he examined with most interest was Short’s Gregorian telescope. At other times, by Boulton’s request, he went to see the few steam-engines then at work in London and the neighbourhood, and make inquiries as to their performances. With that object he examined the engines at the New River, Hungerford, and Chelsea. At the latter place, he said, “it was impossible to try the quantity of injection, and the fellow told me lies about the height of the column of water.” But Watt soon grew tired of London, “running from street to street all day about gilding,” inquiring after metal-rollers, silver-platers, and button-makers. He did his best, however, to execute the commissions which Boulton from time to time sent him; and when these were executed, he returned to Birmingham to confer with his friends as to the steps to be taken with respect to the patent. The result of his conferences with Boulton and Small was, that it was determined to take steps to apply for an Act for its extension in the ensuing session of Parliament.

Watt went up to London a second time for the purpose of having the Bill drawn. He had scarcely arrived there when the sad intelligence reached him of the death of Dr. Small. He had long been ailing, yet the event was a shock alike to himself and Boulton. The latter wrote Watt in the bitterness of his grief, “If there were not a few other objects yet remaining for me to settle my affections upon, I should wish also to take up my abode in the mansions of the dead.” Watt replied, reminding him of the sentiments of their departed friend, as to the impropriety of indulging in unavailing sorrow, the best refuge from which was the more sedulous performance of duty. “Come, my dear sir,” said he, “and immerse yourself in this sea of business as soon as possible. Pay a proper respect to your friend by obeying his precepts. I wait for you with impatience, and assure yourself no endeavour of mine shall be wanting to render life agreeable to you.”

It had been intended to include Small in the steam-engine partnership on the renewal of the patent. He had been consulted in all the stages of the proceedings, and one of the last things he did was to draw up Watt’s petition for the Bill. No settled arrangement had yet been made—not even between Boulton and Watt. Everything depended upon the success of the application for the extension of the patent.

Meanwhile, through the recommendation of his old friend Dr. Robison, then in Russia officiating as Mathematical Professor at the Government Naval School at Cronstadt, Watt was offered an appointment under the Russian Government, at a salary of about 1000l. a year. He was thus presented with a means of escape from his dependence upon Boulton, and for the first time in his life had the prospect before him of an income that to him would have been affluence. But he entertained strong objections to settling in Russia: he objected to its climate, its comparative barbarism, and, notwithstanding the society of his friend Robison, to the limited social resources of St. Petersburg. Besides, Boulton’s favours were so gracefully conferred, that the dependence on him was not felt; for he made the recipient of his favours feel as if the obligation were entirely on the side of the giver. “Your going to Russia staggers me,” he wrote to Watt; “the precariousness of your health, the dangers of so long a journey or voyage, and my own deprivation of consolation, render me a little uncomfortable; but I wish to assist and advise you for the best, without regard to self.” The result was, that Watt determined to wait the issue of the application for the extension of his patent.

The Bill was introduced to Parliament on the 28th of February, 1775, and it was obvious from the first that it would have considerable opposition to encounter. The mining interest had looked forward to Watt’s invention as a means of helping them out of their difficulties and giving a new value to their property by clearing the drowned mines of water. They therefore desired to have the free use of the engine at the earliest possible period; and when it was proposed to extend the patent by Act of Parliament, they set up with one accord the cry of “No monopoly.” Up to the present time, as we have seen, the invention had been productive to Watt of nothing but loss, labour, anxiety, and headaches; and it was only just that a reasonable period should be allowed to enable him to derive some advantage from the results of his application and ingenuity. But the mining interest took a different view of the matter. They did not see the necessity of recognising the rights of the inventor beyond the term of his existing patent, and they held that the public interests would suffer if the proposed “monopoly” were granted. Nor were they without supporters in Parliament, for among the most strenuous we find the name of Edmund Burke,—influenced, it is supposed, by certain mining interests in the neighbourhood of Bristol, which city he then represented.

There is no doubt that the public would have benefited by Watt’s invention having been made free to all. But it was not for the public merely that Watt had been working at his engine for fifteen long years. He was a man of comparatively small means, and had been buoyed up and stimulated to renewed exertion during that time by the hope of ultimate reward in the event of its success. If labour could give a man a title to property in his invention, Watt’s claim was clear. The condensing-engine had been the product of his own skill, contrivance, and brain-work. But there has always been a difficulty in getting the claims of mere brain-work recognised. Had he expended his labour in building a house instead of in contriving a machine, his right of property would at once have been acknowledged. As it was, he had to contend for justice and persuade the legislature of the reasonableness of granting his application for an extension of the patent. In the “Case” which he drew up for distribution amongst the members of the Lower House, on the motion being carried for the recommittal of the Bill, he set forth that having, after great labour and expense extending over many years, succeeded in completing working engines of each of the two kinds he had invented, he found that they could not be carried into profitable execution without the further expenditure of large sums of money in erecting mills, and purchasing the various materials and utensils necessary for making them; and from the reluctance with which the public generally adopt new inventions, he was afraid that the whole term granted by his patent would expire before the engines should have come into general use and any portion of his expenses be repaid:—

These weighty arguments could not fail to produce an impression on the minds of all reasonable men, and the result was, that Parliament passed an Act extending Watt’s patent right for the further term of twenty-four years. Watt wrote Boulton on the 27th May,—“I hope to be clear to come away by Wednesday or Thursday. I am heartily sick of this town and fort ennuyée since you left it. Dr. Roebuck is likely to get an order, out of Smeaton’s hands, for an engine in Yorkshire that, according to Smeaton’s calculation, will burn 1200l. per annum in coals. But this has had one bad effect. It has made the Doctor repent of his bargain and wish again to be upon the 1-10th [profits]; but we must see to keep him right if possible, so don’t vex yourself about it.” Dr. Roebuck had been finally settled with before the passing of the Act. It had been arranged that Boulton should pay him 1000l. out of the first profits arising from his share in the engine, making about 2200l. in all paid by Boulton to Roebuck for his two-thirds of the patent.[141]

Watt returned to Birmingham to set about the making of the engines for which orders had already been received. Boulton had been busily occupied during his absence in experimenting on the Soho engine. A new 18-inch cylinder had been cast for it at Bersham by John Wilkinson, the great ironfounder,[142] who had contrived a machine for boring it with accuracy. This cylinder was substituted for the tin one brought from Kinneil, and other improvements having been introduced, the engine was again set to work with very satisfactory results. Watt found his partner in good spirits; not less elated by the performances of the model than by the passing of the Act; and arrangements were at once set on foot for carrying on the manufacture of engines upon an extensive scale. Applications for terms, followed by orders, shortly came in from the mining districts; and before long the works at Soho were resounding with the clang of hammers and machinery employed in manufacturing steam-engines for all parts of the civilised world.

CHAPTER XII.
Boulton and Watt begin the Manufacture of Steam-engines.

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 children, whom he had left in charge of their relatives. Boulton had taken a house on Harper’s Hill, which was in readiness for the reception of the family on their arrival about the end of August, 1775. Regent’s-place, Harper’s Hill, was then the nearest house to Soho on that side of Birmingham. It was a double house, substantially built in brick, with stone facings, standing on the outskirts of the town, surrounded by fields and gardens. St. Paul’s, the nearest church, was not built until four years after Watt took up his abode there. But the house at Harper’s Hill is in the country no longer: it is now surrounded in all directions by dense masses of buildings, and is itself inhabited by working people.

The first engine made at Soho was one ordered by John Wilkinson to blow the bellows of his ironworks at Broseley. Great interest was, of course, felt in the success of this engine. Watt took great pains with the drawings; the workmen did their best to execute the several parts accurately, for it was understood that many orders depended upon whether it worked satisfactorily or not. Wilkinson’s iron-manufacturing neighbours, who were contemplating the erection of Newcomen engines, suspended their operations until they had an opportunity of seeing what Boulton and Watt’s engine could do; and all looked forward to its completion with the most eager interest. When all was ready at Soho, the materials were packed up and sent to Broseley, Watt accompanying them to superintend the erection. He had as yet no assistant to whom he could intrust such a piece of work, on which so much depended. The engine was erected and ready for use about the beginning of 1776. As it approached completion Watt became increasingly anxious to make a trial of its powers. But Boulton wrote to him not to hurry—not to let the engine make a stroke until every possible hinderance to its successful action had been removed; “and then,” said he, “in the name of God, fall to and do your best.” The result of the extreme care taken with the construction and erection of the engine was entirely satisfactory. It worked to the admiration of all who saw it, and the fame of Boulton and Watt became great in the midland counties.

While Watt was thus occupied, Boulton was pushing on the new buildings at Soho. He kept his partner fully advised of all that was going on. “The new forging-shop,” he wrote, “looks very formidable: the roof is nearly put on, and the hearths are both built.” Tools and machinery were being prepared, and all looked hopeful for the future. Orders were coming in for engines. One in hand for Bloomfield Colliery was well advanced. Many inquiries had come from Cornwall. Mr. Papps, of Truro, was anxious to introduce the engine in that county. Out of forty engines there, only eighteen were in work; so that there was a fine field for future operations. “Pray tell Mr. Wilkinson,” Boulton added, “to get a dozen cylinders cast and bored, from 12 to 50 inches diameter, and as many condensers of suitable sizes. The latter must be sent here, as we will keep them ready fitted up, and then an engine can be turned out of hand in two or three weeks. I have fixed my mind upon making from twelve to fifteen reciprocating and fifty rotative engines per annum. I assure you that of all the toys and trinkets which we manufacture at Soho, none shall take the place of fire-engines in respect of my attention.”[143]

Boulton was not, however, exclusively engrossed by engine affairs. Among other things he informed Watt that he had put his little boy Jamie to a good school, and that he was very much occupied, as usual, in entertaining visitors. “The Empress of Russia,” he wrote, “is now at my house, and a charming woman she is.” The Empress afterwards sent Boulton her portrait, and it was long one of the ornaments of Soho. Amidst his various occupations he contrived to find leisure for experiments on minerals, having received from a correspondent in Wales a large assortment of iron-ores to assay. He was also trying experiments on the model engine, the results of which were duly communicated to his partner.[144]

On Watt’s return to Soho, Boulton proceeded to London on financial affairs, as well as to look after engine orders. He there found reports in circulation among the engineering class that the new engine had proved a failure. The Society of Engineers in Holborn, of which Smeaton was the great luminary, had settled it that neither the tools nor the workmen existed that could manufacture so complex a machine with sufficient precision, and it was asserted that all the ingenuity and skill of Soho had been unable to conquer the defects of the piston. “So said Holmes, the clockmaker,” wrote Boulton,—Holmes being the intimate friend of Smeaton; “but no language will be sufficiently persuasive on that head except the good performance of the engines themselves.”[145] Boulton, therefore, urged the completion of the engine then in hand for Cooke and Company’s distillery at Stratford-le-Bow, near London. “Wilby,” [the managing partner,] said he, “seems very impatient, and so am I, both for the sake of reputation as well as to begin to turn the tide of money,”—the current of which had as yet been all outwards. Boulton went to see the York Buildings engine, which had been reconstructed by Smeaton, and was then reckoned one of the best on the Newcomen plan. The old man who tended it lauded the engine to the skies, and notwithstanding Boulton’s description of the new engines at work in Staffordshire, he would not believe that any engine in existence could excel his own.

In the course of the summer Watt again visited Glasgow,—this time for the purpose of bringing back a wife. The lady he proposed to marry was Miss Anne Macgregor, daughter of a respectable dyer. The young lady’s consent was obtained, as well as her father’s, to the proposed union; but the latter, before making any settlement on his daughter, intimated to Watt that he desired to see the partnership agreement between him and Boulton. Now, although the terms of partnership had been generally arranged, they had not yet been put into legal form, and Watt asked that this should be done for the cautious old gentleman’s satisfaction without delay.[146] About his love affair Watt wrote,—