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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of James Watt, by Andrew Carnegie
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: James Watt
+
+Author: Andrew Carnegie
+
+Release Date: July 26, 2008 [EBook #26131]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES WATT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by V. L. Simpson and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+    JAMES WATT
+
+    By
+    Andrew Carnegie
+
+    Author of "The Empire of Business,"
+    "Gospel of Wealth," "Triumphant Democracy,"
+    "American Four-in-Hand in Britain,"
+    "Round the World," Etc.
+
+
+    New York
+    Doubleday, Page & Company
+    1905
+
+
+    Copyright, 1905, by
+    Doubleday, Page & Company
+    Published, May, 1905
+
+
+
+    _All rights reserved, including that of
+    translation--also right of translation
+    into the Scandinavian languages._
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+When the publishers asked me to write the Life of Watt, I declined,
+stating that my thoughts were upon other matters. This settled the
+question, as I supposed, but in this I was mistaken. Why shouldn't I
+write the Life of the maker of the steam-engine, out of which I had made
+fortune? Besides, I knew little of the history of the Steam Engine and
+of Watt himself, and the surest way to obtain knowledge was to comply
+with the publisher's highly complimentary request. In short, the subject
+would not down, and finally, I was compelled to write again, telling
+them that the idea haunted me, and if they still desired me to undertake
+it, I should do so with my heart in the task.
+
+I now know about the steam-engine, and have also had revealed to me one
+of the finest characters that ever graced the earth. For all this I am
+deeply grateful to the publishers.
+
+I am indebted to friends, Messrs. Angus Sinclair and Edward R. Cooper,
+for editing my notes upon Scientific and Mechanical points.
+
+The result is this volume. If the public, in reading, have one tithe of
+the pleasure I have had in writing it, I shall be amply rewarded.
+
+    THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+  Authors Preface                                 v
+
+  CHAPTER                                      PAGE
+
+     I. Childhood and Youth                       3
+
+    II. Glasgow to London--Return to Glasgow.    23
+
+   III. Captured by Steam                        45
+
+    IV. Partnership with Roebuck                 67
+
+     V. Boulton Partnership                      87
+
+    VI. Removal to Birmingham                   121
+
+   VII. Second Patent                           157
+
+  VIII. The Record of the Steam Engine          195
+
+    IX. Watt in Old Age                         213
+
+     X. Watt, the Inventor and Discoverer       223
+
+    XI. Watt, the Man                           233
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
+
+
+James Watt, born in Greenock, January 19, 1736, had the advantage, so
+highly prized in Scotland, of being of good kith and kin. He had indeed
+come from a good nest. His great-grandfather, a stern Covenanter, was
+killed at Bridge of Dee, September 12, 1644, in one of the battles which
+Graham of Claverhouse fought against the Scotch. He was a farmer in
+Aberdeenshire, and upon his death the family was driven out of its
+homestead and forced to leave the district.
+
+Watt's grandfather, Thomas Watt, was born in 1642, and found his way to
+Crawford's Dyke, then adjoining, and now part of, Greenock, where he
+founded a school of mathematics, and taught this branch, and also that
+of navigation, to the fishermen and seamen of the locality. That he
+succeeded in this field in so little and poor a community is no small
+tribute to his powers. He was a man of decided ability and great natural
+shrewdness, and very soon began to climb, as such men do. The landlord
+of the district appointed him his Baron Bailie, an office which then had
+important judicial functions. He rose to high position in the town,
+being Bailie and Elder, and was highly respected and honored. He
+subsequently purchased a home in Greenock and settled there, becoming
+one of its first citizens. Before his death he had established a
+considerable business in odds and ends, such as repairing and
+provisioning ships; repairing instruments of navigation, compasses,
+quadrants, etc., always receiving special attention at his hands.
+
+The sturdy son of a sturdy Covenanter, he refused to take the test in
+favor of prelacy (1683), and was therefore proclaimed to be "a
+disorderly school-master officiating contrary to law." He continued to
+teach, however, and a few years later the Kirk Session of Greenock,
+notwithstanding his contumacy, found him "blameless in life and
+conversation," and appointed him an Elder, which required him to
+overlook not only religious observances, but the manners and morals of
+the people. One of the most important of these duties was to provide for
+the education of the young, in pursuance of that invaluable injunction
+of John Knox, "that no father, of what estate or condition that ever he
+may be, use his children at his own fantasie, especially in their
+youthhood, _but all must be compelled to bring up their children in
+learning and virtue_." Here we have, at its very birth, the doctrine of
+compulsory education for all the people, the secret of Scotland's
+progress. Great as was the service Knox rendered in the field
+ecclesiastical, probably what he did for the cause of public education
+excels it. The man who proclaimed that he would never rest until there
+was a public school in every parish in Scotland must stand for all time
+as one of the foremost of her benefactors; probably, in the extent and
+quality of the influence he exerted upon the national character through
+universal compulsory education, the foremost of all.
+
+The very year after Parliament passed the Act of 1696, which at last
+fulfilled Knox's aspirations, and during the Eldership of Watt's
+grandfather, Greenock made prompt provision for her parish school, in
+which we may be sure the old "teacher of mathematics" did not fail to
+take a prominent part.
+
+Thomas Watt's son, the father of the great inventor, followed in his
+father's footsteps, after his father's death, as shipwright, contractor,
+provider, etc., becoming famous for his skill in the making of the most
+delicate instruments. He built shops at the back of his house, and such
+were the demands upon him that he was able to keep a number of men,
+sometimes as many as fourteen, constantly at work. Like his father, he
+became a man of position and influence in the community, and was
+universally esteemed. Prosperity attended him until after the birth of
+his famous son. The loss of a valuable ship, succeeded by other
+misfortunes, swept away most of the considerable sum which he had made,
+and it was resolved that James would have to be taught a trade, instead
+of succeeding to the business, as had been the intention.
+
+Fortunate it was for our subject, and especially so for the world, that
+he was thus favored by falling heir to the best heritage of all, as Mr.
+Morley calls it in his address to the Midland Institute--"the necessity
+at an early age to go forth into the world and work for the means needed
+for his own support." President Garfield's verdict was to the same
+effect, "The best heritage to which a man can be born is poverty." The
+writer's knowledge of the usual effect of the heritage of milliondom
+upon the sons of millionaires leads him fully to concur with these high
+authorities, and to believe that it is neither to the rich nor to the
+noble that human society has to look for its preservation and
+improvement, but to those who, like Watt, have to labor that they may
+live, and thus make a proper return for what they receive, as working
+bees, not drones, in the social hive. Not from palace or castle, but
+from the cottage have come, or can come, the needed leaders of our race,
+under whose guidance it is to ascend.
+
+We have a fine record in the three generations of the Watts,
+great-grandfather, grandfather and father, all able and successful men,
+whose careers were marked by steady progress, growing in usefulness to
+their fellows; men of unblemished character, kind and considerate,
+winning the confidence and affection of their neighbors, and leaving
+behind them records unstained.
+
+So much for the male branch of the family tree, but this is only half.
+What of that of the grandmothers and mothers of the line--equally
+important? For what a Scotch boy born to labor is to become, and how,
+cannot be forecast until we know what his mother is, who is to him
+nurse, servant, governess, teacher and saint, all in one. We must look
+to the Watt women as carefully as to the men; and these fortunately we
+find all that can be desired. His mother was Agnes Muirhead, a
+descendant of the Muirheads of Lachop, who date away back before the
+reign of King David, 1122. Scott, in his "Minstrelsy of the Scottish
+Border," gives us the old ballad of "The Laird of Muirhead," who played
+a great part in these unsettled days.
+
+The good judgment which characterised the Watts for three generations is
+nowhere more clearly shown than in the lady James Watt's father courted
+and finally succeeded in securing for his wife. She is described as a
+gentlewoman of reserved and quiet deportment, "esteemed by her
+neighbours for graces of person as well as of mind and heart, and not
+less distinguished for her sound sense and good manners than for her
+cheerful temper and excellent housewifery." Her likeness is thus drawn,
+and all that we have read elsewhere concerning her confirms the truth of
+the portrait. Williamson says that
+
+    the lady to whom he (Thomas Watt) was early united in marriage
+    was Miss Agnes Muirhead, a gentlewoman of good understanding and
+    superior endowments, whose excellent management in household
+    affairs would seem to have contributed much to the order of her
+    establishment, as well as to the every-day happiness of a
+    cheerful home. She is described as having been a person above
+    common in many respects, of a fine womanly presence, ladylike in
+    appearance, affecting in domestic arrangements--according to our
+    traditions--what, it would seem was considered for the time,
+    rather a superior style of living. What such a style consisted
+    in, the reader shall have the means of judging for himself. One
+    of the author's informants on such points more than twenty years
+    ago, a venerable lady, then in her eighty-fifth year, was wont
+    to speak of the worthy Bailie's wife with much characteristic
+    interest and animation. As illustrative of what has just been
+    remarked of the internal economy of the family, the old lady
+    related an occasion on which she had spent an evening, when a
+    girl, at Mrs. Watt's house, and remembered expressing with much
+    _naïveté_ to her mother, on returning home, her childish
+    surprise that "Mrs. Watt had _two_ candles lighted on the
+    table!" Among these and other reminiscences of her youth, one
+    venerable informant described James Watt's mother, in her
+    eloquent and expressive Doric, as, "a braw, braw, woman--none
+    now to be seen like her."
+
+There is another account from a neighbor, who also refers to Mrs. Watt
+as being somewhat of the grand lady, but always so kind, so sweet, so
+helpful to all her neighbors.
+
+The Watt family for generations steadily improved and developed. A great
+step upward was made the day Agnes Muirhead was captured. We are liable
+to forget how little of the original strain of an old family remains in
+after days. We glance over the record of the Cecils, for instance, to
+find that the present Marquis has less than one four-thousandth part of
+the Cecil blood; a dozen marriages have each reduced it one-half, and
+the recent restoration of the family to its pristine greatness in the
+person of the late Prime Minister, and in his son, the brilliant young
+Parliamentarian, of whom great things are predicted already, is to be
+credited equally to the recent infusion into the Cecil family of the
+entirely new blood of two successive brides, daughters of commoners who
+made their own way in the world. One was the mother of the late
+statesman, the other his wife and the mother of his sons. So with the
+Watt family, of which we have records of three marriages. Our Watt,
+therefore, had but one-eighth of the original Watt strain; seven-eighths
+being that of the three ladies who married into the family. Upon the
+entrance of a gentlewoman of Agnes Muirhead's qualities hung important
+results, for she was a remarkable character with the indefinable air of
+distinction, was well educated, had a very wise head, a very kind heart
+and all the sensibility and enthusiasm of the Celt, easily touched to
+fine issues. She was a Scot of the Scots and a storehouse of border
+lore, as became a daughter of her house, Muirhead of Lachop.
+
+Here, then, we have existing in the quiet village of Greenock in 1736,
+unknown of men, all the favorable conditions, the ideal soil, from which
+might be expected to appear such "variation of species" as contained
+that rarest of elements, the divine spark we call genius. In due time
+the "variation" made its appearance, now known as Watt, the creator of
+the most potent instrument of mechanical force known to man.
+
+The fond mother having lost several of her children born previously was
+intensely solicitous in her care of James, who was so delicate that
+regular attendance at school was impossible. The greater part of his
+school years he was confined most of the time to his room. This threw
+him during most of his early years into his mother's company and tender
+care. Happy chance! What teacher, what companionship, to compare with
+that of such a mother! She taught him to read most of what he then knew,
+and, we may be sure, fed him on the poetry and romance upon which she
+herself had fed, and for which he became noted in after life. He was
+rated as a backward scholar at school, and his education was considered
+very much neglected.
+
+Let it not be thought, however, that the lad was not being educated in
+some very important departments. The young mind was absorbing, though
+its acquisitions did not count in the school records. Much is revealed
+of his musings and inward development in the account of a visit which he
+paid to his grandmother Muirhead in Glasgow, when it was thought that a
+change would benefit the delicate boy. We read with pleasant surprise
+that he had to be sent for, at the request of the family, and taken
+home. He kept the household so stirred up with his stories, recitations
+and continual ebullitions, which so fairly entranced his Grannie and
+Grandpa and the cousins, that the whole household economy was
+disordered. They lost their sleep, for "Jamie" held them spellbound
+night after night with his wonderful performances. The shy and
+contemplative youngster who had tramped among the hills, reciting the
+stirring ballads of the border, had found an admiring tho astonished
+audience at last, and had let loose upon them.
+
+To the circle at home he was naturally shy and reserved, but to his
+Grannie, Grandpa, and Cousins, free from parental restraint, he could
+freely deliver his soul. His mind was stored with the legends of his
+country, its romance and poetry, and, strong Covenanters as were the
+Watts for generations, tales of the Martyrs were not wanting. The
+heather was on fire within Jamie's breast. But where got you all that
+_perferidum Scotorum_, my wee mannie--that store of precious nutriment
+that is to become part of yourself and remain in the core of your being
+to the end, hallowing and elevating your life with ever-increasing
+power? Not at the grammar school we trow. No school but one can instil
+that, where rules the one best teacher you will ever know, genius though
+you be--the school kept at your mother's knee. Such mothers as Watt had
+are the appointed trainers of genius, and make men good and great, if
+the needed spark be there to enkindle: "Kings they make gods, and meaner
+subjects kings."
+
+We have another story of Watt's childhood that proclaims the coming man.
+Precocious children are said rarely to develop far in later years, but
+Watt was pre-eminently a precocious child, and of this several proofs
+are related. A friend looking at the child of six said to his father,
+"You ought to send your boy to a public school, and not allow him to
+trifle away his time at home." "Look how he is occupied before you
+condemn him," said the father. He was trying to solve a problem in
+geometry. His mother had taught him drawing, and with this he was
+captivated. A few toys were given him, which were constantly in use.
+Often he took them to pieces, and out of the parts sometimes constructed
+new ones, a source of great delight. In this way he employed and amused
+himself in the many long days during which he was confined to the house
+by ill health.
+
+It is at this stage the steam and kettle story takes its rise. Mrs.
+Campbell, Watt's cousin and constant companion, recounts, in her
+memoranda, written in 1798:
+
+    Sitting one evening with his aunt, Mrs. Muirhead, at the
+    tea-table, she said: "James Watt, I never saw such an idle boy;
+    take a book or employ yourself usefully; for the last hour you
+    have not spoken one word, but taken off the lid of that kettle
+    and put it on again, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon
+    over the steam, watching how it rises from the spout, and
+    catching and connecting the drops of hot water it falls into.
+    Are you not ashamed of spending your time in this way?"
+
+To what extent the precocious boy ruminated upon the phenomenon must be
+left to conjecture. Enough that the story has a solid foundation upon
+which we can build. This more than justifies us in classing it with
+"Newton and the Apple," "Bruce and the Spider," "Tell and the Apple,"
+"Galvani and the Frog," "Volta and the Damp Cloth," "Washington and His
+Little Hatchet," a string of gems, amongst the most precious of our
+legendary possessions. Let no rude iconoclast attempt to undermine one
+of them. Even if they never occurred, it matters little. They should
+have occurred, for they are too good to lose. We could part with many of
+the actual characters of the flesh in history without much loss; banish
+the imaginary host of the spirit and we were poor indeed. So with these
+inspiring legends; let us accept them and add others gladly as they
+arise, inquiring not too curiously into their origin.
+
+While Watt was still in boyhood, his wise father not only taught him
+writing and arithmetic, but also provided a set of small tools for him
+in the shop among the workmen--a wise and epoch-making gift, for young
+Watt soon revealed such wonderful manual dexterity, and could do such
+astonishing things, that the verdict of one of the workmen, "Jamie has a
+fortune at his finger-ends," became a common saying among them. The most
+complicated work seemed to come naturally to him. One model after
+another was produced to the wonder and delight of his older
+fellow-workmen. Jamie was the pride of the shop, and no doubt of his
+fond father, who saw with pardonable pride that his promising son
+inherited his own traits, and gave bright promise of excelling as a
+skilled handicraftsman.
+
+The mechanical dexterity of the Watts, grandfather, father and son, is
+not to be belittled, for most of the mechanical inventions have come
+from those who have been cunning of hand and have worked as manual
+laborers, generally in charge of the machinery or devices which they
+have improved. When new processes have been invented, these also have
+usually suggested themselves to the able workmen as they experienced the
+crudeness of existing methods. Indeed, few important inventions have
+come from those who have not been thus employed. It is with inventors as
+with poets; few have been born to the purple or with silver spoons in
+their mouths, and we shall plainly see later on that had it not been for
+Watt's inherited and acquired manual dexterity, it is probable that the
+steam engine could never have been perfected, so often did failure of
+experiments arise solely because it was in that day impossible to find
+men capable of executing the plans of the inventor. His problem was to
+teach them by example how to obtain the exact work required when the
+tools of precision of our day were unknown and the men themselves were
+only workmen of the crudest kind. Many of the most delicate parts, even
+of working engines, passed through Watt's own hands, and for most of his
+experimental devices he had himself to make the models. Never was there
+an inventor who had such reason to thank fortune that in his youth he
+had learned to work with his hands. It proved literally true, as his
+fellow-workmen in the shop predicted, that "Jamie's fortune was at his
+finger-ends."
+
+As before stated, he proved a backward scholar for a time, at the
+grammar school. No one seems to have divined the latent powers
+smoldering within. Latin and Greek classics moved him not, for his mind
+was stored with more entrancing classics learned at his mother's knee:
+his heroes were of nobler mould than the Greek demigods, and the story
+of his own romantic land more fruitful than that of any other of the
+past. Busy working man has not time to draw his inspiration from more
+than one national literature. Nor has any man yet drawn fully from any
+but that of his native tongue. We can no more draw our mental sustenance
+from two languages than we can think in two. Man can have but one deep
+source from whence come healing waters, as he can have but one mother
+tongue. So it was with Watt. He had Scotland and that sufficed. When the
+boy absorbs, or rather is absorbed by, Wallace, The Bruce, and Sir John
+Grahame, is fired by the story of the Martyrs, has at heart page after
+page of the country's ballads, and also, in more recent times, is at
+home with Burns' and Scott's prose and poetry, he has little room and
+less desire, and still less need, for inferior heroes. So the dead
+languages and their semi-supernatural, quarrelsome, self-seeking heroes
+passed in review without gaining admittance to the soul of Watt. But the
+spare that fired him came at last--Mathematics. "Happy is the man who
+has found his work," says Carlyle. Watt found his when yet a boy at
+school. Thereafter never a doubt existed as to the field of his labors.
+The choice of an occupation is a serious matter with most young men.
+There was never room for any question of choice with young Watt. The
+occupation had chosen him, as is the case with genius. "Talent does what
+it can, genius what it must." When the goddess lays her hand upon a
+mortal dedicated to her shrine, concentration is the inevitable result;
+there is no room for anything which does not contribute to her service,
+or rather all things are made contributory to it, and nothing that the
+devotee sees or reads, hears or feels, but some way or other is made to
+yield sustenance for the one great, overmastering task. "The gods send
+thread for a web begun," because the web absorbs everything that comes
+within reach. So it proved with Watt.
+
+At fifteen, he had twice carefully read "The Elements of Philosophy"
+(Gravesend), and had made numerous chemical experiments, repeating them
+again and again, until satisfied of their accuracy. A small electrical
+machine was one of his productions with which he startled his
+companions. Visits to his uncle Muirhead at Glasgow were frequent, and
+here he formed acquaintance with several educated young men, who
+appreciated his abilities and kindly nature; but the visits to the same
+kind uncle "on the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond," where the
+summer months were spent, gave the youth his happiest days.
+Indefatigable in habits of observation and research, and devoted to the
+lonely hills, he extended his knowledge by long excursions, adding to
+his botanical and mineral treasures. Freely entering the cottages of the
+people, he spent hours learning their traditions, superstitions,
+ballads, and all the Celtic lore. He loved nature in her wildest moods,
+and was a true child of the mist, brimful of poetry and romance, which
+he was ever ready to shower upon his friends. An omniverous reader, in
+after life he vindicated his practice of reading every book he found,
+alleging that he had "never yet read a book or conversed with a
+companion without gaining information, instruction or amusement." Scott
+has left on record that he never had met and conversed with a man who
+could not tell him something he did not know. Watt seems to have
+resembled Sir Walter, "who spoke to every man he met as if he were a
+brother"--as indeed he was--one of the many fine traits of that noble,
+wholesome character. These two foremost Scots, each supreme in his
+sphere, seem to have had many social traits in common, and both that
+fine faculty of attracting others.
+
+The only "sport" of the youth was angling, "the most fitting practice
+for quiet men and lovers of peace," the "Brothers of the Angle,"
+according to Izaak Walton, "being mostly men of mild and gentle
+disposition." From the ruder athletic games of the school he was
+debarred, not being robust, and this was a constant source of morbid
+misery to him, entailing as it did separation from the other boys. The
+prosecution of his favorite geometry now occupied his thoughts and time,
+and astronomy also became a fascinating study. Long hours were often
+spent, lying on his back in a grove near his home, studying the stars by
+night and the clouds by day.
+
+Watt met his first irreparable loss in 1753, when his mother suddenly
+died. The relations between them had been such as are only possible
+between mother and son. Often had the mother said to her intimates that
+she had been enabled to bear the loss of her daughter only by the love
+and care of her dutiful son. Home was home no longer for Jamie, and we
+are not surprised to find him leaving it soon after she who had been to
+him the light and leading of his life had passed out of it.
+
+Watt now reached his seventeenth year. His father's affairs were greatly
+embarrassed. It was clearly seen that the two brothers, John and James,
+had to rely for their support upon their own unaided efforts. John, the
+elder, some time before this had taken to the sea and been shipwrecked,
+leaving only James at home. Of course, there was no question as to the
+career he would adopt. His fortune "lay at his fingers' ends," and
+accordingly he resolved at once to qualify himself for the trade of a
+mathematical instrument maker, the career which led him directly in the
+pathway of mathematics and mechanical science, and enabled him to
+gratify his unquenchable thirst for knowledge thereof.
+
+Naturally Glasgow was decided upon as the proper place in which to
+begin, and Watt took up his abode there with his maternal relatives, the
+Muirheads, carrying his tools with him.
+
+No mathematical instrument maker was to be found in Glasgow, but Watt
+entered the service of a kind of jack-of-all-trades, who called himself
+an "optician" and sold and mended spectacles, repaired fiddles, tuned
+spinets, made fishing-rods and tackle, etc. Watt, as a devoted brother
+of the angle, was an adept at dressing trout and salmon flies, and handy
+at so many things that he proved most useful to his employer, but there
+was nothing to be learned by the ambitious youth.
+
+His most intimate schoolfellow was Andrew Anderson, whose elder brother,
+John Anderson, was the well-known Professor of natural philosophy, the
+first to open classes for the instruction of working-men in its
+principles. He bequeathed his property to found an institution for this
+purpose, which is now a college of the university. The Professor came to
+know young Watt through his brother, and Watt became a frequent visitor
+at his house. He was given unrestricted access to the Professor's
+valuable library, in which he spent many of his evenings.
+
+One of the chief advantages of the public school is the enduring
+friendships boys form there, first in importance through their
+beneficial influence upon character, and, second, as aids to success in
+after life. The writer has been impressed by this feature, for great is
+the number of instances he has known where the prized working-boy or man
+in position has been able, as additional force was required, to say the
+needed word of recommendation, which gave a start or a lift upward to a
+dearly-cherished schoolfellow. It seems a grave mistake for parents not
+to educate their sons in the region of home, or in later years in
+colleges and universities of their own land, so that early friendships
+may not be broken, but grow closer with the years. Watt at all events
+was fortunate in this respect. His schoolmate, Andrew Anderson, brought
+into his life the noted Professor, with all his knowledge, kindness and
+influence, and opened to him the kind of library he most needed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+GLASGOW TO LONDON--RETURN TO GLASGOW
+
+
+Through Professor Muirhead, a kinsman of Watt's mother, he was
+introduced to many others of the faculty of the university, and, as
+usual, attracted their attention, especially that of Dr. Dick, Professor
+of natural philosophy, who strongly advised him to proceed to London,
+where he could receive better instruction than it was possible to obtain
+in Scotland at that time. The kind Professor, diviner of latent genius,
+went so far as to give him a personal introduction, which proved
+efficient. How true it is that the worthy, aspiring youth rarely goes
+unrecognised or unaided. Men with kind hearts, wise heads, and influence
+strong to aid, stand ready at every turn to take modest merit by the
+hand and give it the only aid needed, opportunity to speak, through
+results, for itself. So London was determined upon. Fortunately, a
+distant relative of the Watt family, a sea-captain, was about to set
+forth upon that then long and toilsome journey. They started from
+Glasgow June 7, 1755, on horseback, the journey taking twelve days.
+
+The writer's parents often referred to the fact that when the leading
+linen manufacturer of Dunfermline was about to take the journey to
+London--the only man in the town then who ever did--special prayers were
+always said in church for his safety.
+
+The member of Parliament in Watt's day from the extreme north of
+Scotland would have consumed nearly twice twelve days to reach
+Westminster. To-day if the capital of the English-speaking race were in
+America, which Lord Roseberry says he is willing it should be, if
+thereby the union of our English-speaking race were secured, the members
+of the Great Council from Britain could reach Washington in seven days,
+the members from British Columbia and California, upon the Pacific, in
+five days, both land and sea routes soon to be much quickened.
+
+Those sanguine prophets who predict the reunion of our race on both
+sides of the Atlantic can at least aver that in view of the union of
+Scotland and England, the element of time required to traverse distances
+to and from the capital is no obstacle, since the most distant points of
+the new empire, Britain in the east and British Columbia and California
+in the west, would be reached in less than one-third the time required
+to travel from the north of Scotland to London at the time of the union.
+Besides, the telegraph to-day binds the parts together, keeping all
+citizens informed, and stirring their hearts simultaneously thousands of
+miles apart--Glasgow to London, 1755, twelve days; 1905, eight hours.
+Thus under the genius Steam, tamed and harnessed by Watt, the world
+shrinks into a neighborhood, giving some countenance to the dreamers who
+may perchance be proclaiming a coming reality. We may continue,
+therefore, to indulge the hope of the coming "parliament of man, the
+federation of the world," or even the older and wider prophecy of Burns,
+that, "It's coming yet for a' that, when man to man the world o'er,
+shall brithers be for a' that."
+
+There comes to mind that jewel we owe to Plato, which surely ranks as
+one of the most precious of all our treasures: "We should lure ourselves
+as with enchantments, for the hope is great and the reward is noble." So
+with this enchanting dream, better than most realities, even if it be
+all a dream. Let the dreamers therefore dream on. The world, minus
+enchanting dreams, would be commonplace indeed, and let us remember this
+dream is only dreamable because Watt's steam engine is a reality.
+
+After his twelve days on horseback, Watt arrived in London, a stranger
+in a strange land, unknowing and unknown. But the fates had been kind
+for, burdened with neither wealth nor rank, this poor would-be skilled
+mechanic was to have a fair chance by beginning at the bottom among his
+fellows, the sternest yet finest of all schools to call forth and
+strengthen inherent qualities, and impel a poor young man to put forth
+his utmost effort when launched upon the sea of life, where he must
+either sink or swim, no bladders being in reserve for him.
+
+Our young hero rose to the occasion and soon proved that, Cæsar-like, he
+could "stem the waves with heart of controversy." Thus the rude school
+of experience calls forth and strengthens the latent qualities of youth,
+implants others, and forms the indomitable man, fit to endure and
+overcome. Here, for the first time, alone in swarming London, not one
+relative, not one friend, not even an acquaintance, except the kind
+sea-captain, challenged by the cold world around to do or die, fate
+called to Watt as it calls to every man who has his own way to make:
+
+    "This is Collingtogle ford,
+    And thou must keep thee with thy sword."
+
+When the revelation first rushes upon a youth, hitherto directed by his
+parents, that, boy no more, he must act for himself, presto! change! he
+is a man, he has at last found himself. The supreme test, which proves
+the man, can come in all its winnowing force only to those born to earn
+their own support by training themselves to be able to render to society
+services which command return. This training compels the development of
+powers which otherwise would probably lie dormant. Scotch boy as Watt
+was to the core, with the lowland broad, soft accent, and ignorant of
+foreign literature, it is very certain that he then found support in
+the lessons instilled at his mother's knee. He had been fed on Wallace
+and Bruce, and when things looked darkest, even in very early years, his
+national hero, Wallace, came to mind, and his struggles against fearful
+odds, not for selfish ends, but for his country's independence. Did
+Wallace give up the fight, or ever think of giving up? Never! It was
+death or victory. Bruce and the spider! Did Bruce falter? Never! Neither
+would he. "Scots wa hae," "Let us do or die," implanted before his
+teens, has pulled many a Scottish boy through the crises of life when
+all was dark, as it will pull others yet to come. Altho Burns and Scott
+had yet to appear, to crystallise Scotland's characteristics and plant
+the talismanic words into the hearts of young Scots, Watt had a copious
+supply of the national sentiment, to give him the "stout heart for the
+stye brae," when manhood arrived. His mother had planted deep in him,
+and nurtured, precious seed from her Celtic garden, which was sure to
+grow and bear good fruit.
+
+We are often met with the question, "What is the best possible safeguard
+for a young man, who goes forth from a pure home, to meet the
+temptations that beset his path?" Various answers are given, but,
+speaking that as a Scot, reared as Watt was, the writer believes all the
+suggested safeguards combined scarcely weigh as much as preventives
+against disgracing himself as the thought that it would not be only
+himself he would disgrace, but that he would also bring disgrace upon
+his family, and would cause father, mother, sister and brother to hang
+their heads among their neighbors in secluded village, on far-away moor
+or in lonely glen. The Scotch have strong traces of the Chinese and
+Japanese religious devotion to "the family," and the filial instinct is
+intensely strong. The fall of one member is the disgrace of all. Even
+although Watt's mother had passed, there remained the venerated father
+in Greenock, and the letters regularly written to him, some of which
+have fortunately been preserved, abundantly prove that, tho far from
+home, yet in home and family ties and family duties the young man had
+his strong tower of defence, keeping him from "all sense of sin or
+shame." Watt never gave his father reason for one anxious thought that
+he would in any respect discredit the good name of his forbears.
+
+Many London shops were visited, but the rules of the trade, requiring
+apprentices to serve for seven years, or, being journeymen, to have
+served that time, proved an insuperable obstacle to Watt's being
+employed. His plan was to fit himself by a year's steady work for return
+to Glasgow, there to begin on his own account. He had not seven years to
+spend learning what he could learn in one. He would be his own master.
+Wise young man in this he was. There is not much outcome in the youth
+who does not already see himself captain in his dreams, and steers his
+barque accordingly, true to the course already laid down, not to be
+departed from, under any stress of weather. We see the kind of stuff
+this young Scotch lad was made of in the tenacity with which he held to
+his plan. At last some specimens of his work having seemed very
+remarkable to Mr. John Morgan, mathematical instrument maker, Finch
+Lane, Cornhill, he agreed to give the conquering young man the desired
+year's instructions for his services and a premium of twenty pounds,
+whereupon the plucky fellow who had kept to his course and made port,
+wrote to his father of his success, praising his master "as being of as
+good character, both for accuracy in his business, and good morals, as
+any of his way in London." The order in which this aspiring young man of
+the world records the virtues will not be overlooked. He then adds, "If
+it had not been for Mr. Short, I could not have got a man in London that
+would have undertaken to teach me, as I now find there are not above
+five or six who could have taught me all I wanted."
+
+Mr. Short was the gentleman to whom Professor Dick's letter of
+introduction was addressed, who, no more than the Professor himself, nor
+Mr. Morgan, could withstand the extraordinary youth, whom he could not
+refuse taking into his service--glad to get him no doubt, and delighted
+that he was privileged to instruct one so likely to redound to his
+credit in after years. Thus Watt made his start in London, the twenty
+pounds premium being duly remitted from home.
+
+Up to this time, Watt had been a charge on his father, but it was very
+small, for he lived in the most frugal style at a cost of only two
+dollars per week. In one of his letters to his father he regrets being
+unable to reduce it below that, knowing that his father's affairs were
+not prosperous. He, however, was able to obtain some remunerative work
+on his own account, which he did after his day's task was over, and soon
+made his position secure as a workman. Specialisation he met with for
+the first time, and he expresses surprise that "very few here know any
+more than how to make a rule, others a pair of dividers, and suchlike."
+Here we see that even at that early day division of labor had won its
+way in London, though yet unknown in the country. The jack-of-all-trades,
+the handyman, who can do everything, gives place to the specialist who
+confines himself to one thing in which practice makes him perfect. Watt's
+mission saved him from this, for to succeed he had to be master, not of
+one process, but of all. Hence we find him first making brass scales,
+parallel-rulers and quadrants. By the end of one month in this department
+he was able to finish a Hadley quadrant. From this he proceeded to azimuth
+compasses, brass sectors, theodolites, and other delicate instruments.
+Before his year was finished he wrote his father that he had made
+"a brass sector with a French joint, which is reckoned as nice a piece of
+framing-work as is in the trade," and expressed the hope that he would
+soon now be able to support himself and be no longer a charge upon him.
+
+It is highly probable that this first tool finished by his own hands
+brought to Watt more unalloyed pleasure than any of his greater triumphs
+of later years, just as the first week's wages of youth, money earned by
+service rendered, proclaiming coming manhood, brings with it a thrill
+and glow of proud satisfaction, compared with which all the millions of
+later years are as dross.
+
+Writers upon labor, who have never labored, generally make the profound
+mistake of considering labor as one solid mass, when the truth is that
+it contains orders and degrees as distinct as those in aristocracy. The
+workman skilled beyond his fellows, who is called upon by his
+superintendent to undertake the difficult job in emergencies, ranks
+high, and probably enjoys an honorable title, a pet name conferred by
+his shopmates. Men measure each other as correctly in the workshop as in
+the professions, and each has his deserved rank. When the right man is
+promoted, they rally round and enable him to perform wonders. Where
+favoritism or poor judgment is shown, the reverse occurs, and there is
+apathy and dissatisfaction, leading to poor results and serious trouble.
+The manual worker is as proud of his work, and rightly so, as men are in
+other vocations. His life and thought centre in the shop as those of
+members of Congress or Parliament centre in the House; and triumph for
+him in the shop, his world, means exactly the same to him, and appears
+not less important to his family and friends than what leadership is to
+the public man, or in any of the professions. He has all their pride of
+profession, and less vanity than most.
+
+How far this "pride of profession" extends is well illustrated by the
+Pittsburgh story of the street scrapers at their noon repast. MacCarthy,
+recently deceased, was the subject of eulogy, one going so far as to
+assert that he was "the best man that ever scraped a hoe on Liberty
+Street." To this, one who had aspirations "allowed Mac was a good enough
+man on plain work, but around the gas-posts he wasn't worth a cent."
+
+A public character, stopping over night with a friend in the country,
+the maid-of-all-work tells her mistress, after the guest departs, "I
+have read so much about him, never expecting to see him; little did I
+think I should have the honor of brushing his boots this morning." Happy
+girl in her work, knowing that all service is honorable. Even
+shoe-blacking, we see, has its rewards.
+
+A Highland laird and lady, visiting some of their crofters on the moors,
+are met and escorted by a delighted wife to her cot. The children and
+the husband are duly presented. At an opportune moment the proud wife
+cannot refrain from informing her visitors that "it was Donald himsel'
+the laird had to send for to thatch the pretty golf-house at the Castle.
+Donald did all that himsel'," with an admiring glance cast at the
+embarrassed great man. Donald "sent for by the laird at the Castle"
+ranks in Donald's circle and in Donald's own heart with the honor of
+being sent for by His Majesty to govern the empire in Mr. Balfour's
+circle and in Mr. Balfour's own heart. Ten to one the proud Highland
+crofter and his circle reap more genuine, unalloyed satisfaction from
+the message than the lowland statesman and his circle could reap from
+his. But it made Balfour famous, you say. So was Donald made famous, his
+circle not quite so wide as that of his colleague--that is all. Donald
+is as much "uplifted" as the Prime Minister; probably more so. Thus is
+human nature ever the same down to the roots. Many distinctions, few
+differences in life. We are all kin, members of the one family, playing
+with different toys.
+
+So deep down into the ranks of labor goes the salt of pride of
+profession, preventing rot and keeping all fresh in the main, because on
+the humblest of the workers there shines the bright ray of hope of
+recognition and advancement, progress and success. As long as this vista
+is seen stretching before all is well with labor. There will be
+friction, of course, between capital and labor, but it will be healthy
+friction, needed by, and good for, both. There is the higgling of the
+market in all business. As long as this valuable quality of honest pride
+in one's work exists, and finds deserved recognition, society has
+nothing to fear from the ranks of labor. Those who have had most
+experience with it, and know its qualities and its failings best, have
+no fear; on the contrary, they know that at heart labor is sound, and
+only needs considerate treatment. The kindly personal attention of the
+employer will be found far more appreciated than even a rise in wages.
+
+Enforced confinement and unremitting labor soon told upon Watt's
+delicate constitution, yet he persevered with the self-imposed extra
+work, which brought in a little honest money and reduced the remittances
+from home. He caught a severe cold during the winter and was afflicted
+by a racking cough and severe rheumatic pains. With his father's
+sanction, he decided to return home to recuperate, taking good care
+however, forehanded as he always proved himself, to secure some new and
+valuable tools and a stock of materials to make many others, which "he
+knew he must make himself." A few valuable books were not forgotten,
+among them Bion's work on the "Construction and Use of Mathematical
+Instruments"--nothing pertaining to his craft but he would know. King he
+would be in that, so everything was made to revolve around it. That was
+the foundation upon which he had to build.
+
+To the old home in Scotland our hero's face was now turned in the autumn
+of 1756, his twentieth year. His native air, best medicine of all for
+the invalid exile, soon restored his health, and to Glasgow he then
+went, in pursuance of his plan of life early laid down, to begin
+business on his own account. He thus became master before he was man.
+There was not in all Scotland a mathematical instrument maker, and here
+was one of the very best begging permission to establish himself in
+Glasgow. As in London so in Glasgow, however, the rules of the Guild of
+Hammermen, to which it was decided a mathematical instrument maker would
+belong, if one of such high calling made his appearance, prevented Watt
+from entrance if he had not consumed seven years in learning the trade.
+He had mastered it in one, and was ready to demonstrate his ability to
+excel by any kind of test proposed. Watt had entered in properly by the
+door of knowledge and experience of the craft, the only door through
+which entrance was possible, but he had travelled too quickly; besides
+he was "neither the son of a burgess, nor had he served an
+apprenticeship in the borough," and this was conclusive. How the world
+has travelled onward since those days! and yet our day is likely to be
+in as great contrast a hundred and fifty years hence. Protective tariffs
+between nations, and probably wars, may then seem as strangely absurd as
+the hammermen's rules. Even in 1905 we have still a far road to travel.
+
+Failing in his efforts to establish himself in business, he asked the
+guild to permit him to rent and use a small workshop to make
+experiments, but even this was refused. We are disposed to wonder at
+this, but it was in strict accordance with the spirit of the times.
+
+When the sky was darkest, the clouds broke and revealed the university
+as his guardian angel. Dr. Dick, Professor of natural philosophy,
+knowing of Watt's skill from his first start in Glasgow, had already
+employed him to repair some mathematical instruments bequeathed to the
+university by a Scotch gentleman in the West Indies, and the work had
+been well done, at a cost of five pounds--the first contract money ever
+earned by Watt in Glasgow. Good work always tells. Ability cannot be
+kept down forever; if crushed to earth, it rises again. So Watt's "good
+work" brought the Professors to his aid, several of whom he had met and
+impressed most favorably during its progress. The university charter,
+gift of the Pope in 1451, gave absolute authority within the area of its
+buildings, and the Professors resolved to give our hero shelter
+there--the best day's work they ever did. May they ever be remembered
+for this with feelings of deepest gratitude. What men these were! The
+venerable Anderson has already been spoken of; Adam Smith, who did for
+the science of economics what Watt did for steam, was one of Watt's
+dearest friends; Black, discoverer of latent heat; Robinson, Dick of
+whom we have spoken, and others. Such were the world's benefactors, who
+resolved to take Watt under their protection, and thus enabled him to do
+his appointed work. Glorious university, this of Glasgow, protector and
+nurse of Watt, probably of all its decisions this has been of the
+greatest service to man!
+
+There are universities and universities. Glasgow's peculiar claim to
+regard lies in the perfect equality of the various schools, the
+humanities not neglected, the sciences appreciated, neither accorded
+precedence. Its scientific Professor, Thompson, now Lord Kelvin, was
+recently elevated to the Lord Chancellorship, the highest honor in its
+power to bestow.
+
+Every important university develops special qualities of its own, for
+which it is noted. That of Glasgow is renowned for devotion to the
+scientific field. What a record is hers! Protector of Watt, going to
+extreme measures necessary, not alone to shelter him, but to enable him
+to labor within its walls and support himself; first university to
+establish an engineering school and professorship of engineering; first
+to establish a chemical teaching laboratory for students; first to have
+a physical laboratory for the exercise and instruction of students in
+experimental work; nursery from which came the steam engine of Watt, the
+discovery of latent heat by its Professor Black, and the successful
+operation of telegraph cables by its Professor and present Lord
+Chancellor (Lord Kelvin). May the future of Glasgow University copy
+fair her glorious past! Her "atmosphere" favors and stimulates steady,
+fruitful work. At all Scottish, as at all American universities, we may
+rejoice that there is always found a large number of the most
+distinguished students, who, figuratively speaking, cultivate knowledge
+upon a little oatmeal, earning money between terms to pay their way. It
+is highly probable that a greater proportion of these will be heard from
+in later years than of any other class.
+
+American universities have, fortunately, followed the Glasgow model, and
+are giving more attention to the hitherto much neglected needs of
+science, and the practical departments of education, making themselves
+real universities, "where any man can study everything worth studying."
+
+A room was assigned to Watt, only about twenty feet square, but it
+served him as it has done others since for great work. When the
+well-known author, Dr. Smiles, visited the room, he found in it the
+galvanic apparatus employed by Professor Thompson (Lord Kelvin) for
+perfecting his delicate invention which rendered ocean cables effective.
+
+The kind and wise Professors did not stop here. They went pretty far,
+one cannot but think, when they took the next step in Watt's behalf,
+giving him a small room, which could be made accessible to the public,
+and this he was at liberty to open as a shop for the sale of his
+instruments, for Watt had to make a living by his handiwork. Strange
+work this for a university, especially in those days; but our readers,
+we are sure, will heartily approve the last, as they have no doubt
+approved the first action of the faculty in favor of struggling genius.
+Business was not prosperous at first with Watt, his instruments proving
+slow of sale. Of quadrants he could make three per week with the help of
+a lad, at a profit of forty shillings, but as sea-going ships could not
+then reach Glasgow, few could be sold. A supply was sent to Greenock,
+then the port of Glasgow, and sold by his father. He was reduced, as the
+greatest artists have often been, to the necessity of making what are
+known as "pot-boilers." Following the example of his first master in
+Glasgow he made spectacles, fiddles, flutes, guitars, and, of course,
+flies and fishing-tackle, and, as the record tells, "many dislocated
+violins, fractured guitars, fiddles also, if intreated, did he mend with
+good approbation." Such were his "pot-boilers" that met the situation.
+
+His friend, Professor Black, who, like Professor Dick, had known of
+Watt's talent, one day asked him if he couldn't make an organ for him.
+By this time, Watt's reputation had begun to spread, and it finally
+carried him to the height of passing among his associates as "one who
+knew most things and could make anything." Watt knew nothing about
+organs, but he immediately undertook the work (1762), and the result was
+an indisputable success that led to his constructing, for a mason's
+lodge in Glasgow, a larger "finger organ," "which elicited the surprise
+and admiration of musicians." This extraordinary man improved everything
+he touched. For his second organ he devised a number of novelties, a
+sustained monochord, indicators and regulators of the blast, means for
+tuning to any system, contrivances for improving the stops, etc.
+
+Lest we are led into a sad mistake here, let us stop a moment to
+consider how Watt so easily accomplished wonders, as if by inspiration.
+In all history it may be doubted whether success can be traced more
+clearly to long and careful preparation than in Watt's case. When we
+investigate, for instance, this seeming sleight-of-hand triumph with the
+organs, we find that upon agreeing to make the first, Watt immediately
+devoted himself to a study of the laws of harmony, making science
+supplement his lack of the musical ear. As usual, the study was
+exhaustive. Of course he found and took for guide the highest authority,
+a profound, but obscure book by Professor Smith of Cambridge University,
+and, mark this, he first made a model of the forthcoming organ. It is
+safe to say that there was not then a man in Britain who knew more of
+the science of music and was more thoroughly prepared to excel in the
+art of making organs than the new organ-builder.
+
+When he attacked the problem of steam, as we shall soon see, the same
+course was followed, although it involved the mastering of three
+languages, that he should miss nothing.
+
+We note that the taking of infinite pains, this fore-arming of himself,
+this knowing of everything that was to be known, the note of thorough
+preparation in Watt's career, is ever conspicuous. The best proof that
+he was a man of true genius is that he first made himself master of all
+knowledge bearing upon his tasks.
+
+Watt could not have been more happily situated. His surroundings were
+ideal, the resources of the university were at his disposal, and, being
+conveniently situated, his workshop soon became the rendezvous of the
+faculty. He thus enjoyed the constant intimate companionship of one of
+the most distinguished bodies of educated men of science in the world.
+Glasgow was favored in her faculty those days as now. Two at least of
+Watt's closest friends, the discoverer of latent heat, and the author of
+the "Wealth of Nations," won enduring fame. Others were eminent. He did
+not fail to realise his advantages, and has left several acknowledgments
+of his debt to "those who were all much my superiors, I never having
+attended a college and being then but a mechanic." His so-called
+superiors did not quite see it in this light, as they have abundantly
+testified, but the modesty of Watt was ever conspicuous all through his
+life.
+
+Watt led a busy life, the time not spent upon the indispensable
+"pot-boilers" being fully occupied in severe studies; chemistry,
+mathematics and mechanics all received attention. What he was finally to
+become no one could so far predict, but his associates expected
+something great from one who had so deeply impressed them.
+
+Robison (afterwards Professor of natural history in Edinburgh
+University), being nearer Watt's age than the others, became his most
+intimate friend. His introduction to Watt, in 1758, has been described
+by himself. After feasting his eyes on the beautifully finished
+instruments in his shop, Robison entered into conversation with him.
+Expecting to find only a workman, he was surprised to find a
+philosopher. Says Robison:
+
+    I had the vanity to think myself a pretty good proficient in my
+    favorite study (mathematical and mechanical philosophy), and was
+    rather mortified at finding Mr. Watt so much my superior. But
+    his own high relish for those things made him pleased with the
+    chat of any person who had the same tastes with himself; or his
+    innate complaisance made him indulge my curiosity, and even
+    encourage my endeavors to form a more intimate acquaintance with
+    him. I lounged much about him, and, I doubt not, was frequently
+    teasing him. Thus our acquaintance began.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+CAPTURED BY STEAM
+
+
+The supreme hour of Watt's life was now about to strike. He had become
+deeply interested in the subject of steam, to which Professor Robison
+had called his attention, Robison being then in his twentieth year, Watt
+three years older.
+
+Robison's idea was that steam might be applied to wheel carriages. Watt
+admitted his ignorance of steam then. Nevertheless, he made a model of a
+wheel carriage with two cylinders of tin plate, but being slightly and
+inaccurately made, it failed to work satisfactorily. Nothing more was
+heard of it. Robison soon thereafter left Glasgow. The demon Steam
+continued to haunt Watt. He, who up to this time had never seen even a
+model of a steam engine, strangely discovered in his researches that the
+university actually owned a model of the latest type, the Newcomen
+engine, which had been purchased for the use of the natural philosophy
+class. One wonders how many of the universities in Britain had been so
+progressive. That of Glasgow seems to have recognised at an early day
+the importance of science, in which department she continues famous. The
+coveted and now historical model had been sent to London for repairs.
+Watt urged its prompt return and a sum of money was voted for this
+purpose. Watt was at last completely absorbed in the subject of steam.
+He read all that had been written on the subject. Most of the valuable
+matter those days was in French and Italian, of which there were no
+translations. Watt promptly began to acquire these languages, that he
+might know all that was to be known. He could not await the coming of
+the model, which did not arrive until 1763, and began his own
+experiments in 1761. How did he obtain the necessary appliances and
+apparatus, one asks. The answer is easy. He made them. Apothecaries'
+vials were his steam boilers, and hollowed-out canes his steam-pipes.
+Numerous experiments followed and much was learnt. Watt's account of
+these is appended to the article on "Steam and the Steam Engine" in the
+"Encyclopædia Britannica," ninth edition.
+
+Detailed accounts of Watt's numerous experiments, failures,
+difficulties, disappointments, and successes, as one after the other
+obstacles were surmounted, is not within the scope of this volume, these
+being all easily accessible to the student, but the general reader may
+be interested in the most important of all the triumphs of the
+indefatigable worker--the keystone of the arch. The Newcomen model
+arrived at last and was promptly repaired, but was not successful when
+put in operation. Steam enough could not be obtained, although the
+boiler seemed of ample capacity. The fire was urged by blowing and more
+steam generated, and still it would not work; a few strokes of the
+piston and the engine stopped. Smiles says that exactly at the point
+when ordinary experimentalists would have abandoned the task, Watt
+became thoroughly aroused. "Every obstacle," says Professor Robison,
+"was to him the beginning of a new and serious study, and I knew he
+would not quit it until he had either discovered its worthlessness or
+had made something of it." The difficulty here was serious. Books were
+searched in vain. No one had touched it. A course of independent
+experiments was essential, and upon this he entered as usual, determined
+to find truth at the bottom of the well and to get there in his own way.
+Here he came upon the fact which led him to the stupendous result. That
+fact was the existence of latent heat, the original discoverer of which
+was Watt's intimate friend, Professor Black. Watt found that water
+converted into steam heated five times its own weight of water to steam
+heat. He says:
+
+    Being struck with this remarkable fact (effect of latent heat),
+    and not understanding the reason of it, I mentioned it to my
+    friend, Dr. Black, who then explained to me his doctrine of
+    latent heat, which he had taught some time before this period
+    (1764); but having myself been occupied with the pursuits of
+    business, if I had heard of it I had not attended to it, when I
+    thus stumbled upon one of the material facts by which that
+    beautiful theory is supported.
+
+Here we have an instance of two men in the same university, discovering
+latent heat, one wholly ignorant of the other's doings; fortunately, the
+later discoverer only too glad to acknowledge and applaud the original,
+and, strange to say, going to him to announce the discovery he had made.
+Watt of course had no access to the Professor's classes, and some years
+before the former stumbled upon the fact, the theory had been announced
+by Black, but had apparently attracted little attention. This episode
+reminds us of the advantages Watt had in his surroundings. He breathed
+the very "atmosphere" of scientific and mechanical investigation and
+invention, and had at hand not only the standard books, but the living
+men who could best assist him.
+
+What does latent heat mean? we hear the reader inquire. Let us try to
+explain it in simple language. Arago pronounced Black's experiment
+revealing it as one of the most remarkable in modern physics. Water
+passed as an element until Watt found it was a compound. Change its
+temperature and it exists in three different states, liquid, solid, and
+gaseous--water, ice and steam. Convert water into steam, and pass, say,
+two pounds of steam into ten pounds of water at freezing point and the
+steam would be wholly liquified, _i.e._, become water again, at 212°,
+but the whole ten pounds of freezing water would also be raised to 212°
+in the process. That is to say two pounds of steam will convert ten
+pounds of freezing water into boiling water, so great is the latent heat
+set free in the passage of steam to lower temperatures at the moment
+when the contact of cold surfaces converts the vapor from the gaseous
+into the liquid state. This heat is so thoroughly merged in the compound
+that the most delicate thermometer cannot detect a variation. It is
+undiscoverable by our senses and yet it proves its existence beyond
+question by its work. Heat which is obtained by the combustion of coal
+or wood, lies also in water, to be drawn forth and utilised in steam. It
+is apparently a mere question of temperature. The heat lies latent and
+dead until we raise the temperature of the water to 212°, and it is
+turned to vapor. Then the powerful force is instantly imbued with life
+and we harness it for our purposes.
+
+The description of latent heat which gave the writer the clearest idea
+of it, and at the same time a much-needed reminder of the fact that Watt
+was the discoverer of the practically constant and unvarying amount of
+heat in steam, whatever the pressure, is the following by Mr. Lauder, a
+graduate of Glasgow University and pupil of Lord Kelvin, taken from
+"Watt's Discoveries of the Properties of Steam."
+
+    It is well to distinguish between the two things, Discovery and
+    Invention. The title of Watt the Inventor is world-wide, and is
+    so just and striking that there is none to gainsay. But it is
+    only to the few that dive deeper that Watt the Discoverer is
+    known. When his mind became directed to the possibilities of the
+    power of steam, he, following his natural bent, began to
+    investigate its properties. The mere inventor would have been
+    content with what was already known, and utilised such
+    knowledge, as Newcomen had done in his engine. Watt might have
+    invented the separate condenser and ranked as a great inventor,
+    but the spirit of enquiry was in possession of him, and he had
+    to find out all he could about the _nature_ of steam.
+
+    His first discovery was that of latent heat. When communicating
+    this to Professor Black he found that his friend had anticipated
+    him, and had been teaching it in lectures to his students for
+    some years past. His next step was the discovery of the _total_
+    heat of steam, and that this remains practically constant at all
+    pressures. Black's fame rests upon his theory of latent heat;
+    Watt's fame as the discoverer of the total heat of steam should
+    be equally great, and would be no doubt had his rôle of inventor
+    not overshadowed all his work.
+
+    This part of Watt's work has been so little known that it is
+    almost imperative to-day to give some idea of it to the general
+    reader. Suppose you take a flask, such as olive oil is often
+    sold in, and fill with cold water. Set it over a lighted lamp,
+    put a thermometer in the water, and the temperature will be
+    observed to rise steadily till it reaches 212°, where it
+    remains, the water boils, and steam is produced freely. Now draw
+    the thermometer out of the water, but leaving it still in the
+    steam. It remains steady at the same point--212°. Now it
+    requires quite a long time and a large amount of heat to convert
+    all the water into steam. As the steam goes off at the same
+    temperature as the water, it is evident a quantity of heat has
+    escaped in the steam, of which the thermometer gives us no
+    account. This is latent heat.
+
+    Now, if you blow the steam into cold water instead of allowing
+    it to pass into the air, you will find that it heats the water
+    six times more than what is due to its indicated temperature. To
+    fix your ideas: suppose you take 100 lbs. of water at 60°, and
+    blow one pound of steam into it, making 101 lbs., its
+    temperature will now be about 72°, a rise of 12°. Return to your
+    100 lbs. of water at 60° and add one pound of water at 212° the
+    same temperature as the steam you added, and the temperature
+    will only be raised about 2°. The one pound of steam heats six
+    times more than the one pound of water, both being at the same
+    temperature. This is the quantity of latent heat, which means
+    simply hidden heat, in steam.
+
+    Proceeding further with the experiment, if, instead of allowing
+    the steam to blow into the water, you confine it until it gets
+    to some pressure, then blow it into the water, it takes the same
+    weight to raise the temperature to the same degree. This means
+    that the total heat remains practically the same, no matter at
+    what pressure.
+
+    This is James Watt's discovery, and it led him to the use of
+    high-pressure steam, used expansively.
+
+Even coal may yet be superseded before it is exhausted, for as eminent
+an authority as Professor Pritchett of the Massachusetts Institute of
+Technology has said in a recent address:
+
+    Watt's invention and all it has led to is only a step on the way
+    to harnessing the forces of nature to the service of man. Do you
+    doubt that other inventions will work changes even more sweeping
+    than those which the steam engine has brought?
+
+    Consider a moment. The problem of which Watt solved a part is
+    not the problem of inventing a machine, but the problem of using
+    and storing the forces of nature which now go to waste. Now to
+    us who live on the earth there is only one source of power--the
+    sun. Darken the sun and every engine on the earth's surface
+    would soon stop, every wheel cease to turn, and all movement
+    cease. How prodigal this supply of power is we seldom stop to
+    consider. Deducting the atmospheric absorption, it is still true
+    that the sun delivers on each square yard of the earth's
+    surface, when he is shining, the equivalent of one horse-power
+    working continuously. Enough mechanical power goes to waste on
+    the college campus to warm and light and supply all the
+    manufactories, street railroads and other consumers of
+    mechanical power in the city. How to harness this power and to
+    store it--that is the problem of the inventor and the engineer
+    of the twentieth century, a problem which in good time is sure
+    to be solved.
+
+Who shall doubt, after finding this secret source of force in water,
+that some future Watt is to discover other sources of power, or
+perchance succeed in utilising the superabundant power known to exist in
+the heat of the sun, or discover the secret of the latent force employed
+by nature in animals, which converts chemical energy directly into the
+dynamic form, giving much higher efficiencies than any thermo-dynamic
+machine has to-day or probably ever can have. Little knew Shakespeare of
+man's perfect power of motion which utilises all energy! How came he
+then to exclaim "What a piece of work is man; how infinite in faculty;
+in form and _moving_ how express and admirable"? This query, and a
+thousand others, have arisen; for we forget Arnold's lines to the
+Master:
+
+    "Others abide our question. Thou art free.
+    We ask and ask--thou smilest and art still."
+
+Man's "moving" is found more "express and admirable" than that of the
+most perfect machine or adaptation of natural forces yet devised. Lord
+Kelvin says the animal motor more closely resembles an electro-magnetic
+engine than a heat engine, but very probably the chemical forces in
+animals produce the external mechanical effects through electricity and
+do not act as a thermo-dynamic engine.
+
+The wastage of heat energy under present methods is appalling. About 65
+per cent. of the heat energy of coal can be put into the steam boiler,
+and from this only 15 per cent. of mechanical power is obtained. Thus
+about nine-tenths of the original heat in coal is wasted. Proceeding
+further and putting mechanical power into electricity, only from 2 to 5
+per cent. is turned into light; or, in other words, from coal to light
+we get on an average only about one-half of 1 per cent. of the original
+energy, a wastage of ninety-nine and one-half of every hundred pounds of
+coal used. The very best possible with largest and best machinery is a
+little more than one pound from every hundred consumed.
+
+When Watt gave to the steam-engine five times its efficiency by
+utilising the latent heat, he only touched the fringe of the mysterious
+realm which envelops man.
+
+Burbank, of the spineless cactus and new fruits, who has been delving
+deep into the mysteries, tells us:
+
+    The facts of plant life demand a kinetic theory of evolution, a
+    slight change from Huxley's statement that, "Matter is a
+    magazine of force," to that of matter being force alone. The
+    time will come when the theory of "ions" will be thrown aside,
+    and no line left between force and matter.
+
+Professor Matthews, he who, with Professor Loeb at Wood's Hole, is
+imparting life to sea-urchins through electrical reactions, declares
+"that certain chemical substances coming together under certain
+conditions are bound to produce life. All life comes through the
+operation of universal laws." We are but young in all this mysterious
+business. What lies behind and probably near at hand may not merely
+revolutionise material agencies but human preconceptions as well. "There
+are more things in Heaven and Earth than are ever dreamt of in your
+Philosophy."
+
+Latent Heat was a find indeed, but there remained another discovery yet
+to make. Watt found that no less than four-fifths of all the steam used
+was lost in heating the cold cylinder, and only one-fifth performed
+service by acting on the piston. Prevent this, and the power of the
+giant is increased fourfold. Here was the prize to contend for. Win this
+and the campaign is won. First then, what caused the loss? This was soon
+determined. The cylinder was necessarily cooled at the top because it
+was open to the air, and also cooled below in condensing the charge of
+steam that had driven the piston up in order to create a vacuum, without
+which the piston would not descend from top to bottom, to begin another
+upward stroke. A jet of cold water was introduced to effect this. How to
+surmount this seemingly insuperable obstacle was the problem that kept
+Watt long in profound study.
+
+Many plans were entertained, only to be finally rejected. At last the
+flash came into that teeming brain like a stroke of lightning. Eureka!
+he had found it. Not one scintilla of doubt ever intruded thereafter.
+The solution lay right there and he would invent the needed appliances.
+His mode of procedure, when on the trail of big game, is beautifully
+illustrated here. When he found the root of the defect which rendered
+the Newcomen engine impracticable for general purposes, he promptly
+formulated the one indispensable condition which alone met the problem,
+and which the successful steam-engine must possess. He abandoned all
+else for the time as superfluous, since this was the key of the
+position. This is the law he then laid down as an axiom--which is
+repeated in his specification for his first patent in 1769: "To make a
+perfect steam engine it was necessary that the cylinder should be always
+as hot as the steam which entered it, and that the steam should be
+cooled below 100° to exert its full powers."
+
+Watt describes how at last the idea of the "separate condenser," the
+complete cure, flashed suddenly upon his mind:
+
+    I had gone to take a walk on a fine Sabbath afternoon, early in
+    1765. I had entered the green by the gate at the foot of
+    Charlotte Street and had passed the old washing-house. I was
+    thinking upon the engine at the time, and had gone as far as the
+    herd's house, when the idea came into my mind that as steam was
+    an elastic body it would rush into a vacuum, and if a
+    communication were made between the cylinder and an exhausted
+    vessel it would rush into it, and might be there condensed
+    without cooling the cylinder. I then saw that I must get rid of
+    the condensed steam and injection-water if I used a jet as in
+    Newcomen's engine. Two ways of doing this occurred to me. First,
+    the water might be run off by a descending pipe, if an offlet
+    could be got at the depth of thirty-five or thirty-six feet,
+    and any air might be extracted by a small pump. The second was
+    to make the pump large enough to extract both water and air ...
+    I had not walked farther than the golf-house when the whole
+    thing was arranged in my mind.
+
+Professor Black says, "This capital improvement flashed upon his mind at
+once and filled him with rapture." We may imagine
+
+    "Then felt he like some watcher of the skies
+    When a new planet sweeps into his ken."
+
+A new world had sprung forth in Watt's brain, for nothing less has the
+steam engine given to man. One reads with a smile the dear modest man's
+deprecatory remarks about the condenser in after years, when he was
+overcome by the glowing tributes paid him upon one occasion and hailed
+as having conquered hitherto uncontrollable steam. He stammered out
+words to the effect that it came in his way and he happened to find it;
+others had missed it; that was all; somebody had to stumble upon it.
+That is all very well, and we love thee, Jamie Watt (he was always Jamie
+to his friends), for such self-abnegation, but the truth of history must
+be vindicated for all that. It proclaims, Thou art the man; go up higher
+and take your seat there among the immortals, the inventor of the
+greatest of all inventions, a great discoverer and one of the noblest of
+men!
+
+In this one change lay all the difference between the Newcomen engine,
+limited to atmospheric pressure, and the steam engine, capable of
+development into the modern engine through the increasing use of the
+tremendous force of steam under higher pressures, and improved
+conditions from time to time.
+
+Watt leads the steam out of the cylinder and condenses it in a separate
+vessel, leaving the cylinder hot. He closes the cylinder top and sends a
+circular piston (hitherto all had been square) through it, and closely
+stuffs it around to prevent escape of steam. The rapidity of the
+"strokes" gained keeps the temperature of the cylinder high; besides, he
+encases it and leaves a space between cylinder and covering filled with
+steam. Thus he fulfils his law: "The cylinder is kept as hot as the
+steam that enters." "How simple!" you exclaim. "Is that all? How
+obviously this is the way to do it!" Very true, surprised reader, but
+true, also, that no condenser and closed cylinder, no modern steam
+engine.
+
+On Monday morning following the Sabbath flash, we find Watt was up
+betimes at work upon the new idea. How many hours' sleep he had enjoyed
+is not recorded, but it may be imagined that he had several visions of
+the condenser during the night. One was to be made at once; he borrowed
+from a college friend a brass syringe, the body of which served as a
+cylinder. The first condenser vessel was an improvised syringe and a tin
+can. From such an acorn the mighty oak was to grow. The experiment was
+successful and the invention complete, but Watt saw clearly that years
+of unceasing labor might yet pass before the details could all be worked
+out and the steam engine appear ready to revolutionise the labor of the
+world. During these years, Professor Black was his chief adviser and
+encouraged him in hours of disappointment. The true and able friend not
+only did this, but furnished him with money needed to enable him to
+concentrate all his time and strength upon the task.
+
+Most opportunely, at this juncture, came Watt's marriage, to his cousin
+Miss Miller, a lady to whom he had long been deeply attached. Watt's
+friends are agreed in stating that the marriage was of vast importance,
+for he had not passed untouched through the days of toil and trial.
+Always of a meditative turn, somewhat prone to melancholy when without
+companionship, and withal a sufferer from nervous headaches, there was
+probably no gift of the gods equal to that of such a wife as he had been
+so fortunate as to secure. Gentle yet strong in her gentleness, it was
+her courage, her faith, and her smile that kept Watt steadfast. No doubt
+he, like many other men blessed with an angel in the household, could
+truly aver that his worrying cares vanished at the doorstep.
+
+Watt had at last, what he never had before, a home. More than one
+intimate friend has given expression to the doubt whether he could have
+triumphed without Mrs. Watt's bright and cheerful temperament to keep
+him from despondency during the trying years which he had now to
+encounter. Says Miss Campbell:
+
+    I have not entered into any of the interesting details my mother
+    gave me of Mr. Watt's early and constant attachment to his
+    cousin Miss Miller; but she ever considered it as having added
+    to his enjoyment of life, and as having had the most beneficial
+    influence on his character. Even his powerful mind sank
+    occasionally into misanthropic gloom, from the pressure of
+    long-continued nervous headaches, and repeated disappointments
+    in his hopes of success in life. Mrs. Watt, from her sweetness
+    of temper, and lively, cheerful disposition, had power to win
+    him from every wayward fancy; to rouse and animate him to active
+    exertion. She drew out all his gentle virtues, his native
+    benevolence and warm affections.
+
+From all that has been recorded of her, we are justified in classing
+Watt with Bassanio.
+
+        "It is very meet
+    He live an upright life,
+    For having such a blessing in his lady,
+    He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;
+    And if on earth he do not merit it,
+    In reason he should never come to heaven."
+
+Watt knew and felt this and let us hope that, as was his duty, he let
+Mrs. Watt know it, not only by act, but by frequent acknowledgment.
+
+Watt did not marry imprudently, for his instrument-making business had
+increased, as was to have been expected, for his work soon made a
+reputation as being most perfectly executed. At first he was able to
+carry out all his orders himself; now he had as many as sixteen
+workmen. He took a Mr. Craig as a partner, to obtain needed capital. His
+profits one year were $3,000. The business had been removed in 1760 to
+new quarters in the city, and Watt himself had rented a house outside
+the university grounds. Having furnished it, Watt brought his young wife
+and installed her there, July, 1764. We leave him there, happy in the
+knowledge that he is to be carefully looked after, and, last but not
+least, steadily encouraged and counselled not to give up the engine. As
+we shall presently see, such encouragement was much needed at intervals.
+
+The first step was to construct a model embodying all the inventions in
+a working form. An old cellar was rented, and there the work began. To
+prepare the plan was easy, but its execution was quite another story.
+Watt's sad experience with indifferent work had not been lost upon him,
+and he was determined that, come what may, this working model should not
+fail from imperfect construction. His own handiwork had been of the
+finest and most delicate kind, but, as he said, he had "very little
+experience of mechanics _in great_." This model was a monster in those
+days, and great was the difficulty of finding mechanics capable of
+carrying out his designs. The only available men were blacksmiths and
+tinsmiths, and these were most clumsy workmen, even in their own crafts.
+Were Watt to revisit the earth to-day, he would not easily find a more
+decided change or advance over 1764, in all that has been changed or
+improved since then, than in this very department of applied mechanics.
+To-day such a model as Watt constructed in the cellar would be simple
+work indeed. Even the gasoline or the electric motor of to-day, though
+complicated far beyond the steam model, is now produced by automatic
+machinery. Skilled workmen do not have to fashion the parts. They only
+stand looking on at machinery--itself made by automatic
+tools--performing work of unerring accuracy. Had Watt had at his call
+only a small part of the inventory resources of our day, his model steam
+engine might have been named the Minerva, for Minerva-like, it would
+have sprung forth complete, the creature of automatic machinery, the
+workmen meanwhile smilingly looking on at these slaves of the mechanic
+which had been brought forth and harnessed to do his bidding by the
+exercise of godlike reason.
+
+The model was ready after six months of unceasing labor, but
+notwithstanding the scrupulous fastidiousness displayed by Watt in the
+workmanship of all the parts, the machine, alas, "snifted at many
+openings." Little can our mechanics of to-day estimate what "perfect
+joints" meant in those days. The entire correctness of the great idea
+was, however, demonstrated by the trials made. The right principle had
+been discovered; no doubt of that. Watt's decision was that "it must be
+followed to an issue." There was no peace for him otherwise. He wrote
+(April, 1765) to a friend, "My whole thoughts are bent on this machine.
+I can think of nothing else." Of course not; he was hot in the chase of
+the biggest game hunter ever had laid eyes on. He had seen it, and he
+knew he had the weapons to bring it down. A larger model, free as
+possible from defects which he felt he could avoid in the next, was
+promptly determined upon. A larger and better shop was obtained, and
+here Watt shut himself up with an assistant and erected the second
+model. Two months sufficed, instead of six required for the first. This
+one also at first trial leaked in many directions, and the condenser
+needed alterations. Nevertheless, the engine accomplished much, for it
+worked readily with ten and one-half pounds pressure per square inch, a
+decided increase over previous results. It was still the cylinder and
+its piston that gave Watt the chief trouble. No wonder the cylinder
+leaked. It had to be hammered into something like true lines, for at
+that day so backward was the art that not even the whole collective
+mechanical skill of cylinder-making could furnish a bored cylinder of
+the simplest kind. This is not to be construed as unduly hard upon
+Glasgow, for it is said that all the skill of the world could not do so
+in 1765, only one hundred and forty years ago. We travel so fast that it
+is not surprising that there are wiseacres among us quite convinced that
+we are standing still.
+
+We may be pardoned for again emphasising the fact that it is not only
+for his discoveries and inventions that Watt is to be credited, but also
+for the manual ability displayed in giving to these "airy nothings of
+the brain, a local habitation and a name," for his greatest idea might
+have remained an "airy nothing," had he not been also the mechanician
+able to produce it in the concrete. It is not, therefore, only Watt the
+inventor, Watt the discoverer, but also Watt, the manual worker, that
+stands forth. As we shall see later on, he created a new type of workmen
+capable of executing his plans, working with, and educating them often
+with his own hands. Only thus did he triumph, laboring mentally and
+physically. Watt therefore must always stand among the benefactors of
+men, in the triple capacity of discoverer, inventor, and constructor.
+
+The defects of the cylinder, though serious, were clearly mechanical.
+Their certain cure lay in devising mechanical tools and appliances and
+educating workmen to meet the new demands. An exact cylinder would leave
+no room for leakage between its smooth and true surface and the piston;
+but the solution of another difficulty was not so easily indicated. Watt
+having closed the top of the cylinder to save steam, was debarred from
+using water on the upper surface of the piston as Newcomen did, to fill
+the interstices between piston and cylinder and prevent leakage of
+steam, as his piston was round and passed through the top of the
+cylinder. The model leaked badly from this cause, and while engaged
+trying numerous expedients to meet this, and many different things for
+stuffing, he wrote to a friend, "My old White Iron man is dead." This
+being the one he had trained to be his best mechanic, was a grievous
+loss in those days. Misfortunes never come singly; he had just started
+the engine after overhauling it, when the beam broke. Discouraged, but
+not defeated, he battled on, steadily gaining ground, meeting and
+solving one difficulty after another, certain that he had discovered how
+to utilise steam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+PARTNERSHIP WITH ROEBUCK
+
+
+Capital was essential to perfect and place the engine upon the market;
+it would require several thousand pounds. Had Watt been a rich man, the
+path would have been clear and easy, but he was poor, having no means
+but those derived from his instrument-making business, which for some
+time had necessarily been neglected. Where was the daring optimist who
+could be induced to risk so much in an enterprise of this character,
+where result was problematical. Here, Watt's best friend, Professor
+Black, who had himself from his own resources from time to time relieved
+Watt's pressing necessities, proved once more the friend in time of
+need. Black thought of Dr. Roebuck, founder of the celebrated Carron
+Iron Works near by, which Burns apostrophised in these lines, when
+denied admittance:
+
+    "We cam na here to view your works
+    In hopes to be mair wise,
+    But only lest we gang to hell
+    It may be nae surprise."
+
+He was approached upon the subject by Dr. Black, and finally, in
+September, 1765, he invited Watt to visit him with the Professor at his
+country home, and urged him to press forward his invention "whether he
+pursued it as a philosopher or as a man of business." In the month of
+November Watt sent Roebuck drawings of a covered cylinder and piston to
+be cast at his works, but it was so poorly done as to be useless. "My
+principal difficulty in making engines," he wrote Roebuck, "is always
+the smith-work."
+
+By this time, Watt was seriously embarrassed for money. Experiments cost
+much and brought in nothing. His duty to his family required that he
+should abandon these for a time and labor for means to support it. He
+determined to begin as a surveyor, as he had mastered the art when
+making surveying instruments, as was his custom to study and master
+wherever he touched. He could never rest until he knew all there was to
+know about anything. Of course he succeeded. Everybody knew he would,
+and therefore business came to him. Even a public body, the magistrates
+of Glasgow, had not the slightest hesitation in obtaining his services
+to survey a canal which was to open a new coal field. He was also
+commissioned to survey the proposed Forth and Clyde canal. Had he been
+content to earn money and become leading surveyor or engineer of
+Britain, the world might have waited long for the forthcoming giant
+destined to do the world's work; but there was little danger of this.
+The world had not a temptation that could draw Watt from his appointed
+work. His thoughts were ever with his engine, every spare moment being
+devoted to it. Roebuck's speculative and enterprising nature led him
+also into the entrancing field of steam. It haunted him until finally,
+in 1767, he decided to pay off Watt's debts to the amount of a thousand
+pounds, provide means for further experiments, and secure a patent for
+the engine. In return, he became owner of two thirds of the invention.
+
+Next year Watt made trial of a new and larger model, with unsatisfactory
+results upon the first trial. He wrote Roebuck that "by an unforeseen
+misfortune, the mercury found its way into the cylinder and played the
+devil with the solder." Only after a month's hard labor was the second
+trial made, with very different and indeed astonishing results--"success
+to my heart's content," exclaimed Watt. Now he would pay his
+long-promised debt to his partner Roebuck, to whom he wrote, "I
+sincerely wish you joy of this successful result, and hope it will make
+some return for the obligations I owe you." The visit of congratulation
+paid to his partner Roebuck, was delightful. Now were all their griefs
+"in the deep bosom of the ocean buried" by this recent success. Already
+they saw fortunes in their hands, so brightly shone the sun these few
+but happy days. But the old song has its lesson:
+
+    "I've seen the morning the gay hills adorning,
+    I've seen it storming before the close of day."
+
+Instead of instant success, trying days and years were still before
+them. A patent was decided upon, a matter of course and almost of
+formality in our day, but far from this at that time, when it was
+considered monopolistic and was highly unpopular on that account. Watt
+went to Berwick-on-Tweed to make the required declaration before a
+Master in Chancery. In August, 1768, we find him in London about the
+patent, where he became so utterly wearied with the delays, and so
+provoked with the enormous fees required to protect the invention, that
+he wrote his wife in a most despairing mood. She administered the right
+medicine in reply, "I beg you will not make yourself uneasy though
+things do not succeed as you wish. If the engine will not do, something
+else will; never despair." Happy man whose wife is his best doctor. From
+the very summit of elation, to which he had been raised by the success
+of the model, Watt was suddenly cast down into the valley of despair to
+find that only half of his heavy task was done, and the hill of
+difficulty still loomed before. Reaction took place, and the fine brain,
+so long strained to utmost tension, refused at intervals to work at high
+pressure. He became subject to recurring fits of despondency,
+aggravated, if not primarily caused by anxiety for his family, who could
+not be maintained unless he engaged in work yielding prompt returns.
+
+We may here mention one of his lifelong traits, which revealed itself at
+times. Watt was no man of affairs. Business was distasteful to him. As
+he once wrote his partner, Boulton, he "would rather face a loaded
+cannon than settle a disputed account or make a bargain." Monetary
+matters were his special aversion. For any other form of annoyance,
+danger or responsibility, he had the lion heart. Pecuniary
+responsibility was his bogey of the dark closet. He writes that,
+"Solomon said that in the increase of knowledge there is increase of
+sorrow: if he had substituted _business_ for knowledge it would have
+been perfectly true."
+
+Roebuck shines out brilliantly in this emergency. He was always
+sanguine, and encouraged Watt to go forward. October, 1768, he writes:
+
+    You are now letting the most active part of your life insensibly
+    glide away. A day, a moment, ought not to be lost. And you
+    should not suffer your thoughts to be diverted by any other
+    object, or even improvement of this [model], but only the
+    speediest and most effectual manner of executing an engine of a
+    proper size, according to your present ideas.
+
+Watt wrote Dr. Small in January, 1769, "I have much contrived and little
+executed. How much would good health and spirits be worth to me!" and a
+month later, "I am still plagued with headaches and sometimes
+heartaches." Sleepless nights now came upon him. All this time, however,
+he was absorbed in his one engrossing task. Leupold's "Theatrim
+Machinarum," which fell into his hands, gave an account of the
+machinery, furnaces and methods of mine-working in the upper Hartz.
+Alas! the book was in German, and he could not understand it. He
+promptly resolved to master the language, sought out a Swiss-German dyer
+then settled in Glasgow whom he engaged to give him lessons. So German
+and the German book were both mastered. Not bad work this from one in
+the depths of despair. It has been before noted that for the same end he
+had successfully mastered French and Italian. So in sickness as in
+health his demon steam pursued him, giving him no rest.
+
+Watt had a hard piece of work in preparing his first
+patent-specification, which was all-important in those early days of
+patent "monopolies" as these were considered. Their validity often
+turned upon a word or two too much or too little. It was as dangerous to
+omit as to admit. Professionals agree in opinion that Watt here
+displayed extraordinary ability.
+
+In nothing has public opinion more completely changed than in its
+attitude toward patents. In Watt's day, the inventor who applied for a
+patent was a would-be monopolist. The courts shared the popular belief.
+Lord Brougham vehemently remonstrated against this, declaring that the
+inventor was entitled to remuneration. Every point was construed against
+the unfortunate benefactor, as if he were a public enemy attempting to
+rob his fellows. To-day the inventor is hailed as the foremost of
+benefactors.
+
+Notable indeed is it that on the very day Watt obtained his first
+patent, January 5th, 1769, Arkwright got his spinning-frame patent. Only
+the year before Hargreaves obtained his patent for the spinning-jenny.
+These are the two inventors, with Whitney, the American inventor of the
+cotton-gin, from whose brains came the development of the textile
+industry in which Britain still stands foremost. Fifty-six millions of
+spindles turn to-day in the little island--more than all the rest of the
+civilised world can boast. Much later came Stephenson with his
+locomotive. Here is a record for a quartette of manual laborers in the
+truest sense, actual wage-earners as mechanics--Watt, Stephenson,
+Arkwright, and Hargreaves! Where is that quartette to be equalled?
+
+Workingmen of our day should ponder over this, and take to heart the
+truth that manual mechanical labor is the likeliest career to develop
+mechanical inventors and lead them to such distinction as these
+benefactors of man achieved. If disposed to mourn the lack of
+opportunity, they should think of these working-men, whose advantages
+were small compared to those of our day.
+
+The greatest invention of all, the condenser, is fully covered by the
+first patent of 1769. The best engine up to this time was the Newcomen,
+exclusively used for pumping water. As we have seen, it was an
+atmospheric engine, in no sense a steam engine. Steam was only used to
+force the heavy piston upward, no other work being done by it. All the
+pumping was done on the downward stroke. The condensation of the spent
+steam below the piston created a vacuum, which only facilitated the fall
+of the piston. This caused the cylinder to be cooled between each stroke
+and led to the wastage of about four-fifths of all the steam used. It
+was to save this that the condenser was invented, in obedience to Watt's
+law, as stated in his patent, that "the cylinder should be kept always
+as hot as the steam that entered it"; but it must be kept clearly in
+mind that Watt's "modified machines," under his first patent, only used
+steam to do work upon the upward stroke, where Newcomen used it only to
+force up the piston. The double-acting engine--doing work up and
+down--came later, and was protected in the second patent of 1780.
+
+Watt knew better than any that although his model had been successful
+and was far beyond the Newcomen engine, it was obvious that it could be
+improved in many respects--not the least of his reasons for confidence
+in its final and more complete triumph.
+
+To these possible improvements, he devoted himself for years. The
+records once again remind us that it was not one invention, but many,
+that his task involved. Smiles gives the following epitome of some of
+those pressing at this stage:
+
+    Various trials of pipe-condensers, plate-condensers and
+    drum-condensers, steam-jackets to prevent waste of heat, many
+    trials of new methods to tighten the piston band, condenser
+    pumps, oil pumps, gauge pumps, exhausting cylinders,
+    loading-valves, double cylinders, beams and cranks--all these
+    contrivances and others had to be thought out and tested
+    elaborately amidst many failures and disappointments.
+
+There were many others.
+
+All unaided, this supreme toiler thus slowly and painfully evolved the
+steam engine after long years of constant labor and anxiety, bringing to
+the task a union of qualities and of powers of head and hand which no
+other man of his time--may we not venture to say of all time--was ever
+known to possess or ever exhibited.
+
+When a noble lord confessed to him admiration for his noble
+achievements, Watt replied, "The public only look at my success and not
+at the intermediate failures and uncouth constructions which have served
+me as so many steps to climb to the top of the ladder."
+
+Quite true, but also quite right. The public have no time to linger over
+a man's mistakes. What concerns is his triumphs. We "rise upon our dead
+selves (failures) to higher things," and mistakes, recognised as such
+in after days, make for victory. The man who never makes mistakes never
+makes anything. The only point the wise man guards is not to make the
+same mistake twice; the first time never counts with the successful man.
+He both forgives and forgets that. One difference between the wise man
+and the foolish one!
+
+It has been truly said that Watt seemed to have divined all the
+possibilities of steam. We have a notable instance of this in a letter
+of this period (March, 1769) to his friend, Professor Small, in which he
+anticipated Trevithick's use of high-pressure steam in the locomotive.
+Watt said:
+
+    I intend in many cases to employ the expansive force of steam to
+    press on the piston, or whatever is used instead of one, in the
+    same manner as the weight of the atmosphere is now employed in
+    common fire engines. In some cases I intend to use both the
+    condenser and this force of steam, so that the powers of these
+    engines will as much exceed those pressed only by the air, as
+    the expansive power of the steam is greater than the weight of
+    the atmosphere. In other cases, when plenty of cold water cannot
+    be had, I intend to work the engines by the force of steam only,
+    and to discharge it into the air by proper outlets after it has
+    done its office.
+
+In these days patents could be very easily blocked, as Watt experienced
+with his improved crank motion. He proceeded therefore in great secrecy
+to erect the first large engine under his patent, after he had
+successfully made a very small one for trial. An outhouse near one of
+Dr. Roebuck's pits was selected as away from prying eyes. The parts for
+the new engine were partly supplied from Watt's own works in Glasgow and
+partly from the Carron works. Here the old trouble, lack of competent
+mechanics, was again met with. On his return from necessary absences,
+the men were usually found in face of the unexpected and wondering what
+to do next. As the engine neared completion, Watt's anxiety "for his
+approaching doom," he writes, kept him from sleep, his fears being equal
+to his hopes. He was especially sensitive and discouraged by unforeseen
+expenditure, while his sanguine partner, Roebuck, on the contrary,
+continued hopeful and energetic, and often rallied his pessimistic
+partner on his propensity to look upon the dark side. He was one of
+those who adhered to the axiom, "Never bid the devil good-morning till
+you meet him." Smiles believes that it is probable that without
+Roebuck's support Watt could never have gone on, but that may well be
+doubted. His anxieties probably found a needed vent in their expression,
+and left the indomitable do-or-die spirit in all its power. Watt's
+brain, working at high pressure, needed a safety valve. Mrs. Roebuck,
+wife-like, very properly entertained the usual opinion of devoted wives,
+that her husband was really the essential man upon whom the work
+devolved, and, that without him nothing could have been accomplished.
+Smiles probably founded his remark upon her words to Robison: "Jamie
+(Watt) is a queer lad, and, without the Doctor (her husband), his
+invention would have been lost. He won't let it perish." The writer
+knows of a business organisation in which fond wives of the partners
+were all full of dear Mrs. Roebuck's opinion. At one time, according to
+them, the sole responsibility rested upon three of four of these
+marvellous husbands, and never did any of the confiding consorts ever
+have reason to feel that their friend did not share to the fullest
+extent the highly praiseworthy opinion formed of his partners by their
+loving wives. The rising smile was charitably suppressed. In extreme
+cases a suggested excursion to Europe at the company's expense, to
+relieve Chester from the cruel strain, and enable him to receive the
+benefit of a wife's care and ever needful advice, was remarkably
+effective, the wife's fears that Chester's absence would prove ruinous
+to the business being overcome at last, though with difficulty.
+
+Due allowance must be made for Mrs. Roebuck's view of the situation.
+There can be no doubt whatever, that Mr. Roebuck's influence,
+hopefulness and courage were of inestimable value at this period to the
+over-wrought and anxious inventor. Watt was not made of malleable stuff,
+and, besides, he was tied to his mission. He was bound to obey his
+genius.
+
+The monster new engine, upon which so much depended, was ready for trial
+at last in September, 1769. About six months had been spent in its
+construction. Its success was indifferent. Watt had declared it to be a
+"clumsy job." The new pipe-condenser did not work well, the cylinder was
+almost useless, having been badly cast, and the old difficulty in
+keeping the piston-packing tight remained. Many things were tried for
+packing--cork, oiled rags, old hats (felt probably), paper, horse dung,
+etc., etc. Still the steam escaped, even after a thorough overhauling.
+The second experiment also failed. So great is the gap between the small
+toy model and the practical work-performing giant, a rock upon which
+many sanguine theoretical inventors have been wrecked! Had Watt been one
+of that class, he could never have succeeded. Here we have another proof
+of the soundness of the contention that Watt, the mechanic, was almost
+as important as Watt the inventor.
+
+Watt remained as certain as ever of the soundness of his inventions.
+Nothing could shake his belief that he had discovered the true
+scientific mode of utilising steam. His failures lay in the
+impossibility of finding mechanics capable of accurate workmanship.
+There were none such at Carron, nor did he then know of any elsewhere.
+
+Watt's letter to his friend, Dr. Small, at this juncture, is
+interesting. He writes:
+
+    You cannot conceive how mortified I am with this disappointment.
+    It is a damned thing for a man to have his all hanging by a
+    single string. If I had wherewithal to pay the loss, I don't
+    think I should so much fear a failure; but I cannot bear the
+    thought of other people becoming losers by my schemes; and I
+    have the happy disposition of always painting the worst.
+
+Watt's timidity and fear of money matters generally have been already
+noted. He had the Scotch peasant's horror of debt--anything but that.
+This probably arises from the fact that the trifling sums owing by the
+poor to their poor neighbors who have kindly helped them in distress are
+actually needed by these generous friends for comfortable existence. The
+loss is serious, and this cuts deeply into grateful hearts. The
+millionaire's downfall, with large sums owing to banks, rich
+money-lenders, and wealthy manufacturers, really amounts to little. No
+one actually suffers, since imprisonment for debt no longer exists;
+hence "debt" means little to the great operator, who neither suffers
+want himself by failure nor entails it upon others.
+
+To Watt, pressing pecuniary cares were never absent, and debt added to
+these made him the most afflicted of men. Besides this, he says, he had
+been cheated and was "unlucky enough to know." Wise man! ignorance in
+such cases is indeed bliss. We should almost be content to be cheated as
+long as we do not find it out.
+
+It was at such a crisis as this that another cloud, and a dark one,
+came. The sanguine, enterprising, kindly Roebuck was in financial
+straits. His pits had been much troubled by water, which no existing
+machinery could pump out. He had hoped that the new engine would prove
+successful and sufficiently powerful in time to avert the drowning of
+the pits, but this hope had failed. His embarrassments were so pressing
+that he was unable to pay the cost of the engine patent, according to
+agreement, and Watt had to borrow the money for this from that
+never-failing friend, Professor Black. Long may his memory be gratefully
+remembered. Watt had the delightful qualities which attracted friends,
+and those of the highest and best character, but among them all, though
+more than one might have been willing, none were both able and willing
+to sustain him in days of trouble except the famous discoverer of latent
+heat. When we think of Watt, we picture him holding Black by the one
+hand and Small by the other, repeating to them
+
+    "I think myself in nothing else so happy
+    As in a soul remembering my dear friends."
+
+The patent was secured--so much to the good--but Watt had already spent
+too much time upon profitless work, at least more time than he could
+afford. His duty to provide for the frugal wants of his family became
+imperative. "I had," he said, "a wife and children, and I saw myself
+growing gray without having any settled way of providing for them." He
+turned again to surveying and prospered, for few such men as Watt were
+to be found in those days, or in any day. With a record of Watt's work
+as surveyor, engineer, councillor, etc., our readers need not be
+troubled in detail. It should, however, be recorded that the chief canal
+schemes in Scotland in this, the day of canals for internal commerce,
+preceding the day of railroads that was to come, were entrusted to Watt,
+who continued to act as engineer for the Monkland Canal. While Watt was
+acting as engineer for this (1770-72), Dr. Small wrote him that he and
+Boulton had been talking of moving canal boats by the steam engine on
+the high-pressure principle. In his reply, September 30, 1770, Watt
+asks, "Have you ever considered a spiral oar for that purpose, or are
+you for two wheels?" To make his meaning quite plain, he gives a rough
+sketch of the screw propeller, with four turns as used to-day.
+
+Thus the idea of the screw propeller to be worked by his own improved
+engine was propounded by Watt one hundred and thirty-five years ago.
+
+This is a remarkable letter, and a still more remarkable sketch, and
+adds another to the many true forecasts of future development made by
+this teeming brain.
+
+Watt also made a survey of the Clyde, and reported upon its proposed
+deepening. His suggestions remained unacted upon for several years, when
+the work was begun, and is not ended even in our day, of making a trout
+and salmon stream into one of the busiest, navigable highways of the
+world. This year further improvements have been decided upon, so that
+the monsters of our day, with 16,000-horse-power turbine engines, may be
+built near Glasgow. Watt also made surveys for a canal between Perth and
+Coupar Angus, for the well-known Crinan Canal and other projects in the
+Western Highlands, as also for the great Caledonian and the Forth and
+Clyde Canals.
+
+The Perth Canal was forty miles long through a rough country, and took
+forty-three days, for which Watt's fee, including expenses, was $400.
+Labor, even of the highest kind, was cheap in those times. We note his
+getting thirty-seven dollars for plans of a bridge over the Clyde. Watt
+prepared plans for docks and piers at Port Glasgow and for a new harbor
+at Ayr. His last and most important engineering work in Scotland was the
+survey of the Caledonian Canal, made in the autumn of 1773, through a
+district then without roads. "An incessant rain kept me," he writes,
+"for three days as wet as water could make me. I could scarcely preserve
+my journal book."
+
+Suffice it to note that he saved enough money to be able to write,
+"Supposing the engine to stand good for itself, I am able to pay all my
+debts and some little thing more, so that I hope in time to be on a par
+with the world."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are now to make one of the saddest announcements saving dishonor that
+it falls to man to make. Watt's wife died in childbed in his absence. He
+was called home from surveying the Caledonian Canal. Upon arrival, he
+stands paralysed for a time at the door, unable to summon strength to
+enter the ruined home. At last the door opens and closes and we close
+our eyes upon the scene--no words here that would not be an offence. The
+rest is silence.
+
+Watt tried to play the man, but he would have been less than man if the
+ruin of his home had not made him a changed man. The recovery of mental
+equipoise proved for a time quite beyond his power. He could do all that
+man could do, "who could do more is none." The light of his life had
+gone out.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BOULTON PARTNERSHIP
+
+
+After Watt was restored to himself the first subject which we find
+attracting him was the misfortunes of Roebuck, whose affairs were now in
+the hands of his creditors. "My heart bleeds for him," says Watt, "but I
+can do nothing to help him. I have stuck by him, indeed, until I have
+hurt myself." Roebuck's affairs were far too vast to be affected by all
+that Watt had or could have borrowed. For the thousand pounds Watt had
+paid on Roebuck's account to secure the patent, he was still in debt to
+Black. This was subsequently paid, however, with interest, when Watt
+became prosperous.
+
+We now bid farewell to Roebuck with genuine regret. He had proved
+himself a fine character throughout, just the kind of partner Watt
+needed. It was a great pity that he had to relinquish his interest in
+the patent, when, as we shall see, it would soon have saved him from
+bankruptcy and secured him a handsome competence. He must ever rank as
+one of the men almost indispensable to Watt in the development of his
+engine, and a dear, true friend.
+
+The darkest hour comes before the dawn, and so it proved here. As
+Roebuck retired, there appeared a star of hope of the first magnitude,
+in no less a person than the celebrated Matthew Boulton of Birmingham,
+of whom we must say a few words by way of introduction to our readers,
+for in all the world there was not his equal as a partner for Watt, who
+was ever fortunate in his friends. Of course Watt was sure to have
+friends, for he was through and through the devoted friend himself, and
+won the hearts of those worth winning. "If you wish to make a friend, be
+one," is the sure recipe.
+
+Boulton was not only obviously the right man but he came from the right
+place, for Birmingham was the headquarters of mechanical industry. At
+this time, 1776, there was at last a good road to London. As late as
+1747 the coach was advertised to run there in two days only "if the
+roads permit."
+
+If skilled mechanics, Watt's greatest need, were to be found anywhere,
+it was here in the centre of mechanical skill, and especially was it in
+the celebrated works of Boulton, which had been bequeathed from worthy
+sire to worthy son, to be largely extended and more than ever
+preëminent.
+
+Boulton left school early to engage in his father's business. When only
+seventeen years old, he had made several improvements in the manufacture
+of buttons, watch chains, and various trinkets, and had invented the
+inlaid steel buckles, which became so fashionable. It is stated that in
+that early day it was found necessary to export them in large quantities
+to France to be returned and sold in Britain as the latest productions
+of French skill and taste. It is well to get a glimpse of human nature
+as seen here. Fashion decides for a time with supreme indifference to
+quality. It is a question of the name.
+
+At his father's death, the son inherited the business. Great credit
+belongs to him for unceasingly laboring to improve the quality of his
+products and especially to raise the artistic standard, then so low as
+to have already caused "Brummagem" to become a term of reproach. He not
+only selected the cleverest artisans, but he employed the best artists,
+Flaxman being one, to design the artistic articles produced. The natural
+result followed. Boulton's work soon gained high reputation. New and
+larger factories became necessary, and the celebrated Soho works arose
+in 1762. The spirit in which Boulton pursued business is revealed in a
+letter to his partner at Soho from London. "The prejudice that
+Birmingham hath so justly established against itself makes every fault
+conspicuous in all articles that have the least pretensions to taste."
+It may interest American readers familiar with One Dollar watches,
+rendered possible by production upon a large scale, that it was one of
+Boulton's leading ideas in that early day that articles in common use
+could be produced much better and cheaper "if manufactured by the help
+of the best machinery upon a large scale, and this could be successfully
+done in the making of clocks and timepieces." He promptly erected the
+machinery and started this new branch of business. Both King and Queen
+received him cordially and became his patrons. Soho works soon became
+famous and one of the show places of the country; princes, philosophers,
+poets, authors and merchants from foreign lands visited them and were
+hospitably received by Boulton.
+
+He was besieged with requests to take gentlemen apprentices into the
+works, hundreds of pounds sometimes being offered as premium, but he
+resolutely declined, preferring to employ boys whom he could train up as
+workmen. He replies to a gentleman applicant, "I have built and
+furnished a house for the reception of one class of apprentices--fatherless
+children, parish apprentices, and hospital boys; and gentlemen's sons
+would probably find themselves out of place in such companionship."
+
+It is not to be inferred that Boulton grew up an uncultured man because
+he left school very early. On the contrary, he steadily educated
+himself, devoting much time to study, so that with his good looks,
+handsome presence, the manners of the gentleman born, and knowledge much
+beyond the average of that class, he had little difficulty in winning
+for his wife a lady of such position in the county as led to some
+opposition on the part of members of her family to the suitor, but only
+"on account of his being in trade." There exists no survival of this
+objection in these days of American alliances with heirs of the highest
+British titles. We seem now to have as its substitute the condition that
+the father of the bride must be in trade and that heavily and to some
+purpose.
+
+Boulton, like most busy men, had time, and an open mind, for new ideas.
+None at this time interested him so deeply as that of the steam engine.
+Want of water-power proved a serious difficulty at Soho. He wrote to a
+friend, "The enormous expense of the horse-power" (it was also irregular
+and sometimes failed) "put me upon thinking of turning the mill by fire.
+I made many fruitless experiments on the subject."
+
+Boulton wrote Franklin, February 22, 1766, in London, about this, and
+sent a model he had made. Franklin replies a month later, apologising
+for the delay on account of "the hurry and anxiety I have been engaged
+in with our American affairs."[1]
+
+Tamer of lightning and tamer of steam, Franklin and Watt--one of the
+new, the other of the old branch of our English-speaking
+race--co-operating in enlarging the powers of man and pushing forward
+the chariot of progress--fit subject, this, for the sculptor and
+painter!
+
+How much further the steam engine is to be the hand-maid of electricity
+cannot be told, for it seems impossible to set limits to the future
+conquests of the latter, which is probably destined to perform miracles
+un-dreamt of to-day, perhaps coupled in some unthought-of way, with
+radium, the youngest sprite of the weird, uncanny tribe of mysterious
+agents. Uranium, the supposed basis of the latest discovery, Radium, has
+only one-millionth part of the heat of the latter. The slow-moving earth
+takes twenty-four hours to turn upon its axis. Radium covers an equal
+distance while we pronounce its name. One and one-quarter seconds, and
+twenty-five thousand miles are traversed. Puck promises to put his
+"girdle round the earth in forty minutes." Radium would pass the fairy
+girdlist in the spin round sixteen hundred times. Thus truth, as it is
+being evolved in our day, becomes stranger than the wildest imaginings
+of fiction. Our century seems on the threshold of discoveries and
+advances, not less revolutionary, perhaps more so, than those that have
+sprung from steam and electricity. "Canst thou send lightnings to say
+'Lo, here I am'?" silenced man. It was so obviously beyond his power
+until last century. Now he smiles as he reads the question. Is Tyndal's
+prophecy to be verified that "the potency of all things is yet to be
+found in matter"?
+
+We may be sure the searching, restless brains of Franklin and Watt would
+have been meditating upon strange things these days if they were now
+alive.
+
+Boulton is entitled to rank, so far as the writer knows, as the first
+man in the world worthy to wear Carlyle's now somewhat familiar title,
+"Captain of Industry" for he was in his day foremost in the industrial
+field, and before that, industrial organisations had not developed far
+enough to create or require captains, in Carlyle's sense.
+
+Roebuck, while Watt's partner, was one of Boulton's correspondents, and
+told him of Watt's progress with the model engine which proved so
+successful. Boulton was deeply interested, and expressed a desire that
+Watt should visit him at Soho. This he did, on his return from a visit
+to London concerning the patent. Boulton was not at home, but his
+intimate friend, Dr. Small, then residing at Birmingham, a scientist and
+philosopher, whom Franklin had recommended to Boulton, took Watt in
+charge. Watt was amazed at what he saw, for this was his first meeting
+with trained and skilled mechanics, the lack of whom had made his life
+miserable. The precision of both tools and workmen sank deep. Upon a
+subsequent visit, he met the captain himself, his future partner, and of
+course, as like draws to like, they drew to each other, a case of
+mutual liking at first sight. We meet one stranger, and stranger he
+remains to the end of the chapter. We meet another, and ere we part he
+is a kindred soul. Magnetic attraction is sudden. So with these two,
+who, by a kind of free-masonry, knew that each had met his affinity. The
+Watt engine was exhaustively canvassed and its inventor was delighted
+that the great, sagacious, prudent and practical manufacturer should
+predict its success as he did. Shortly after this, Professor Robison
+visited Soho, which was a magnet that attracted the scientists in those
+days. Boulton told him that he had stopped work upon his proposed
+pumping engine. "I would necessarily avail myself of what I learned from
+Mr. Watt's conversation, and this would not be right without his
+consent."
+
+It is such a delicate sense of honor as is here displayed that marks the
+man, and finally makes his influence over others commanding in business.
+It is not sharp practice and smart bargaining that tell. On the
+contrary, there is no occupation in which not only fair but liberal
+dealing brings greater reward. The best bargain is that good for both
+parties. Boulton and Watt were friends. That much was settled. They had
+business transactions later, for we find Watt sending a package
+containing "one dozen German flutes" (made of course by him in Glasgow),
+"at 5s. each, and a copper digester, _£_1:10." Boulton's people probably
+wished samples.
+
+Much correspondence followed between Dr. Small and Watt, the latter
+constantly expressing the wish that Mr. Boulton could be induced to
+become partner with himself and Roebuck in his patents. Naturally the
+sagacious manufacturer was disinclined to associate himself with Mr.
+Roebuck, then in financial straits, but the position changed when he had
+become bankrupt and affairs were in the hands of creditors. Watt
+therefore renewed the subject and agreed to go and settle in Birmingham,
+as he had been urged to do. Roebuck's pitiable condition he keenly felt,
+and had done everything possible to ameliorate.
+
+    What little I can do for him 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. I shall be content
+    to hold a very small share in the partnership, 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.
+
+Thus wrote Watt to his friend Small, August 30, 1772. Small's reply
+pointed out one difficulty which deserves notice and commendation. "It
+is impossible 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." This is an objection which to
+stock-exchange standards may seem "not well taken," and far too
+fantastical for the speculative domain, and yet it is neither
+surprising nor unusual in the realms of genuine business, in which men
+are concerned with or creating only intrinsic values.
+
+The result so ardently desired by Watt was reached in this unexpected
+fashion. It was found that in the ordinary course of business Roebuck
+owed Boulton a balance of $6,000. Boulton agreed to take the Roebuck
+interest in the Watt patent for the debt. As the creditors considered
+the patent interest worthless, they gladly accepted. As Watt said, "it
+was only paying one bad debt with another."
+
+Boulton asked Watt to act as his attorney in the matter, which he did,
+writing Boulton that "the thing is now a shadow; 'tis merely ideal, and
+will cost time and money to realise it." This as late as March 29, 1773,
+after eight years of constant experimentation, with many failures and
+disappointments, since the discovery of the separate condenser in 1765,
+which was then hailed, and rightly so, as the one thing needed. It
+remained the right and only foundation upon which to develop the steam
+engine, but many minor obstacles intervened, requiring Watt's inventive
+and mechanical genius to overcome.
+
+The transfer of Roebuck's two-third interest to Boulton afterward
+carried with it the formation of the celebrated firm of Boulton and
+Watt. The latter arranged his affairs as quickly as possible. He had
+only made $1,000 for a whole year spent in surveying, and part of that
+he gave to Roebuck in his necessity, "so that I can barely support
+myself and keep untouched the small sum I have allotted for my visit to
+you." (Watt to Small, July 25, 1773). This is pitiable indeed--Watt
+pressed for money to pay his way to Birmingham upon important business.
+
+The trial engine was shipped from Kinneil to Soho and Watt arrived in
+May, 1774, in Birmingham. Here a new life opened before him, still
+enveloped in clouds, but we may please ourselves by believing that
+through these the wearied and harassed inventor did not fail to catch
+alluring visions of the sun. Let us hope he remembered the words of the
+beautiful hymn he had no doubt often sung in his youth:
+
+    "Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take
+    The clouds ye so much dread
+    Are big with mercy, and shall break
+    With blessings on your head."
+
+Partnership requires not duplicates, but opposites--a union of different
+qualities. He who proves indispensable as a partner to one man might be
+wholly useless, or even injurious, to another. Generals Grant and
+Sherman needed very different chiefs of staff. One secret of Napoleon's
+success arose from his being free to make his own appointments, choosing
+the men who had the qualities which supplemented his and cured his own
+shortcomings, for every man has shortcomings. The universal genius who
+can manage all himself has yet to appear. Only one with the genius to
+recognise others of different genius and harness them to his own car can
+approach the "universal." It is a case of different but coöperating
+abilities, each part of the complicated machine fitting into its right
+place, and there performing its duty without jarring.
+
+Never were two men more "supplementary" to each other than Boulton and
+Watt, and hence their success. One possessed in perfection the qualities
+the other lacked. Smiles sums this up so finely that we must quote him:
+
+    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._
+
+This tells the whole story, and once again reminds us that without
+imagination and something of the romantic element, little great or
+valuable is to be done in any field. He "runs his business as if it were
+a romance," was said upon one occasion. The man who finds no element of
+romance in his occupation is to be pitied. We know how radically
+different Watt was in his nature to Boulton, whose judgment of men was
+said to be almost unerring. He recognised in Watt at their first
+interview, not only the original inventive genius, but the
+indefatigable, earnest, plodding and thorough mechanic of tenacious
+grip, and withal a fine, modest, true man, who hated bargaining and all
+business affairs, who cared nothing for wealth beyond a very modest
+provision for old age, and who was only happy if so situated that
+without anxiety for money to supply frugal wants, he could devote his
+life to the development of the steam engine. Thus auspiciously started
+the new firm.
+
+    But Boulton was more than a man of business, continues Smiles;
+    he was a man of culture, and the friend of educated 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, 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 afterward joined the Soho circle,
+    not the least distinguished of whom were Joseph Priestley and
+    James Watt.
+
+The first business in hand was the reconstruction of the engine brought
+from Kinneil, which upon trial performed much better than before, wholly
+on account of the better workmanship attainable at Soho; but there still
+recurs the unceasing complaint that runs throughout the long eight years
+of trial--lack of accurate tools and skilled workmen, the difference in
+accuracy between the blacksmith standard and that of the
+mathematical-instrument maker. Watt and Boulton alike agreed that the
+inventions were scientifically correct and needed only proper
+construction. In our day it is not easy to see the apparently
+insuperable difficulty of making anything to scale and perfectly
+accurate, but we forget what the world of Watt was and how far we have
+advanced since.
+
+Watt wrote to his father at Greenock, November, 1774: "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." This is as is usual with the Scotch
+in speech, in a low key and extremely modest, on a par with the verdict
+rendered by the Dunfermline critic who had ventured to attend "the
+playhouse" in Edinburgh to see Garrick in Hamlet--"no bad." The truth
+was that, so pronounced were the results of proper workmanship, coupled
+with some of those improvements which Watt was constantly devising, the
+engine was so satisfactory as to set both Boulton and Watt to thinking
+about the patent which protected the invention. Six of the fourteen
+years for which it was granted had already passed. Some years would
+still be needed to ensure its general use, and it was feared that before
+the patent expired little return might be received. Much interest was
+aroused by the successful trial. Enquiries began to pour in for pumping
+engines for mines. The Newcomen had proved inadequate to work the mines
+as they became deeper, and many were being abandoned in consequence. The
+necessity for a new power had set many ingenious men to work besides
+Watt, and some of these were trying to adopt Watt's principles while
+avoiding his patent. Hatley, one of Watt's workmen upon the trial engine
+at the Carron works, had stolen and sold the drawings.
+
+All this put Boulton and Watt on their guard, and the former hesitated
+to build the new works intended for the manufacture of steam engines
+upon a large scale with improved machinery. An extension of the patent
+seemed essential, and to secure this Watt proceeded to London and spent
+some time there, busy in his spare moments visiting the mathematical
+instrument shops of his youth, and attending to numerous commissions
+from Boulton. A second visit was paid to London, during which the sad
+intelligence of the death of his dear friend, Dr. Small, reached him. In
+the bitterness of his grief, Boulton writes him: "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's sympathetic reply reminds Boulton of the sentiments held by their
+departed friend--that, instead of indulging in unavailing sorrow, the
+best refuge is the more sedulous performance of duties. "Come, my dear
+sir," he writes, "and immerse yourself in this sea of business as soon
+as possible. Pay a proper respect to your friend by obeying his
+precepts. No endeavour of mine shall be wanting to make life agreeable
+to you."
+
+Beautiful partnership this, not only of business, but also entering into
+the soul close and deep, comprehending all of life and all we know of
+death.
+
+Professor Small, born 1734, was a Scot, who went to Williamsburg
+University, Virginia, as Professor of mathematics and natural
+philosophy. Thomas Jefferson was among his pupils. His health suffered,
+and he returned to the old home. Franklin introduced him to Boulton,
+writing (May 22, 1765):
+
+    I beg leave to introduce my friend Doctor Small to your
+    acquaintance, and to recommend him to your civilities. I would
+    not take this freedom if I were not sure it would be agreeable
+    to you; and that you will thank me for adding to the number of
+    those who from their knowledge of you must respect you, one who
+    is both an ingenious philosopher and a most worthy, honest man.
+    If anything new in magnetism or electricity, or any other branch
+    of natural knowledge, has occurred to your fruitful genius since
+    I last had the pleasure of seeing you, you will by communicating
+    it greatly oblige me.
+
+This man must have been one of the finest characters revealed in Watt's
+life. Altho he left little behind him to ensure permanent remembrance,
+the extraordinary tributes paid his memory by friends establish his
+right to high rank among the coterie of eminent men who surrounded Watt
+and Boulton. Boulton records that "there being nothing which I wish to
+fix in my mind so permanently as the remembrance of my dear departed
+friend, I did not delay to erect a memorial in the prettiest but most
+obscure part of my garden, from which you see the church in which he was
+interred." Dr. Darwin contributed the verses inscribed. Upon hearing of
+Small's illness Day hastened from Brussels to be present at the last
+hour.
+
+Keir writes, announcing Small's death to his brother, the Rev. Robert
+Small, in Dundee, "It is needless to say how universally he is lamented;
+for no man ever enjoyed or deserved more the esteem of mankind. We loved
+him with the tenderest affection and shall ever revere his memory."
+
+Watt's voluminous correspondence with Professor Small, previous to his
+partnership with Boulton, proves Small at that time to have been his
+intimate friend and counsellor. We scarcely know in all literature of a
+closer union between two men. Many verses of Tennyson's Memorial to
+Hallam could be appropriately applied to their friendship. Watt did not
+apparently give way to lamentations as Boulton and others did who were
+present at Small's death, probably because the receipt of Boulton's
+heart-breaking letter impressed Watt with the need of assuming the part
+of comforter to his partner, who was face to face with death, and had to
+bear the direct blow. Watt's tribute to his dear friend came later.
+
+Future operations necessarily depended upon the extension of the patent.
+Boulton, of course, could not proceed with the works. There was as yet
+no agreement between Watt and Boulton beyond joint ownership in the
+patent. At this time, Watt's most intimate friend of youthful years in
+Glasgow University, Professor Robison, was Professor of mathematics in
+the Government Naval School, Kronstadt. He secured for Watt an
+appointment at $5,000 per annum, a fortune to the poor inventor; but
+although this would have relieved him from dependence upon Boulton, and
+meant future affluence, he declined, alleging that "Boulton's favours
+were so gracefully conferred that dependence on him was not felt." He
+made Watt feel "that the obligation was entirely upon the side of the
+giver." Truly we must canonise Boulton. He was not only the first
+"Captain of Industry," but also a model for all others to follow.
+
+The bill extending the patent was introduced in Parliament February,
+1775. Opposition soon developed. The mining interest was in serious
+trouble owing to the deepening of the mines and the unbearable expense
+of pumping the water. They had looked forward to the Watt engine soon to
+be free of patent rights to relieve them. "No monopoly," was their cry,
+nor were they without strong support, for Edmund Burke pleaded the cause
+of his mining constituents near Bristol.[2]
+
+We need not follow the discussion that ensued upon the propriety of
+granting the patent extension. Suffice to say it was finally granted for
+a term of twenty-four years, and the path was clear at last. Britain was
+to have probably for the first time great works and new tools specially
+designed for a specialty to be produced upon a large scale. Boulton had
+arranged to pay Roebuck $5,000 out of the first profits from the patent
+in addition to the $6,000 of debt cancelled. He now anticipated payment
+of the thousand, at the urgent request of Roebuck's assignees, giving
+in so doing pretty good evidence of his faith in prompt returns from the
+engines, for which orders came pouring in. New mechanical facilities
+followed, as well as a supply of skilled mechanics.
+
+The celebrated Wilkinson now appears upon the scene, first builder of
+iron boats, and a leading iron-founder of his day, an original Captain
+of Industry of the embryonic type, who began working in a forge for
+three dollars a week. He cast a cylinder eighteen inches in diameter,
+and invented a boring machine which bored it accurately, thus remedying
+one of Watt's principal difficulties. This cylinder was substituted for
+the tin-lined cylinder of the triumphant Kinneil engine. Satisfactory as
+were the results of the engine before, the new cylinder improved upon
+these greatly. Thus Wilkinson was pioneer in iron ships, and also in
+ordering the first engine built at Soho--truly an enterprising man.
+Great pains were taken by Watt that this should be perfect, as so much
+depended upon a successful start. Many concerns suspended work upon
+Newcomen engines, countermanded orders, or refrained from placing them,
+awaiting anxiously the performance of this heralded wonder, the Watt
+engine. As it approached completion, Watt became impatient to test its
+powers, but the prudent, calm Boulton insisted that not one stroke be
+made until every possible hindrance to successful working had been
+removed. He adds, "then, in the name of God, fall to and do your best."
+Admirable order of battle! It was "Be sure you're right, then go ahead,"
+in the vernacular. Watt acted upon this, and when the trial came the
+engines worked "to the admiration of all." The news of this spread
+rapidly. Enquiries and orders for engines began to flow in. No wonder
+when we read that of thirty engines of former makers in one coal-mining
+district only eighteen were at work. The others had failed. Boulton
+wrote Watt to
+
+    tell Wilkinson to get a dozen cylinders cast and bored ... I
+    have fixed my mind upon making from twelve to fifteen
+    reciprocating engines and fifty rotative engines per annum. Of
+    all the toys and trinkets we manufacture at Soho, none shall
+    take the place of fire-engines in respect of my attention.
+
+The captain was on deck, evidently. Sixty-five engines per
+year--prodigious for these days--nothing like this was ever heard of
+before. Two thousand per year is the record of one firm in Philadelphia
+to-day, but let us boast not. Perhaps one hundred and twenty-nine years
+hence will have as great a contrast to show. The day of small factories,
+as of small nations, is past. Increasing magnitude, to which it is hard
+to set a limit, is the order of the day.
+
+So far all was well, the heavy clouds that had so long hovered
+menacingly over Boulton and Watt had been displaced once more by clear
+skies. But no new machinery or new manufacturing business starts
+without accidents, delays and unexpected difficulties. There was
+necessarily a long period of trial and disappointment for which the
+sanguine partners were not prepared. As before, the chief trouble lay in
+the lack of skilled workmen, for although the few original men in Soho
+were remarkably efficient, the increased demand for engines had
+compelled the employment of many new hands, and the work they could
+perform was sadly defective. Till this time, it is to be remembered
+there had been neither slide lathes, planing machines, boring tools, nor
+any of the many other devices which now ensure accuracy. All depended
+upon the mechanics' eye and hand, if mechanics they could be called.
+Most of the new hands were inexpert and much given to drink.
+Specialisation had to be resorted to--one thing for each workman, in the
+fashioning of which practice made perfect. This system was introduced
+with success, but the training of the men took time. Meanwhile work
+already turned out and that in progress was not up to standard, and this
+caused infinite trouble. One very important engine was "The Bow" for
+London, which was shipped in September. The best of the experts, Joseph
+Harrison, was sent to superintend its erection. Verbal instructions Watt
+would not depend upon; Harrison was supplied in writing with detailed
+particulars covering every possible contingency. Constant communication
+between them was kept up by letter, for the engine did not work
+satisfactorily, and finally Watt himself proceeded to London in November
+and succeeded in overcoming the defects. Harrison's anxieties disabled
+him, and Boulton wrote to Dr. Fordyce, a celebrated doctor of that day,
+telling him to take good care of Harrison, "let the expense be what it
+will." Watt writes Boulton that Harrison must not leave London, as "a
+relapse of the engine would ruin our reputation here and elsewhere." The
+Bow engine had a relapse, however, which happened in this way. Smeaton,
+then the greatest of the engineers, requested Boulton's London agent to
+take him to see the new engine. He carefully examined it, called it a
+"very pretty engine," but thought it too complicated a piece of
+machinery for practical use. There was apparently much to be said for
+this opinion, for we clearly see that Watt was far in advance of his day
+in mechanical requirements. Hence his serious difficulties in the
+construction of the complex engine, and in finding men capable of doing
+the delicately accurate work which was absolutely indispensable for
+successful working.
+
+Before leaving, Smeaton made the engineer a gift of money, which he
+spent in drink. The drunken engineman let the engine run wild, and it
+was thrown completely out of order. The valves--the part of the
+complicated machine that required the most careful treatment--were
+broken. He was dismissed, and, repairs being made, the engine worked
+satisfactorily at last. In Watt's life, we meet drunkenness often as a
+curse of the time. We have the satisfaction of knowing that our day is
+much freer from it. We have certainly advanced in the cure of this evil,
+for our working-men may now be regarded as on the whole a steady sober
+class, especially in America, where intemperance has not to be reckoned
+with.
+
+We see the difference between the reconstructed Kinneil engine where
+Boulton's "mathematical instrument maker's" standard of workmanship was
+possible "because his few trained men capable of such work were
+employed." The Kinneil engine, complicated as it was in its parts, being
+thus accurately reconstructed, did the work expected and more. The Bow
+engines and some others of the later period, constructed by ordinary
+workmen capable only of the "blacksmith's" standard of finish, proved
+sources of infinite trouble.
+
+Watt had several cases of this kind to engross his attention, all
+traceable to the one root, lack of the skilled, sober workmen, and the
+tools of precision which his complex (for his day, very complex) steam
+engine required. The truth is that Watt's engine in one sense was born
+before its time. Our class of instrument-making mechanics and several
+new tools should have preceded it; then, the science of the invention
+being sound, its construction would have been easy. The partners
+continued working in the right direction and in the right way to create
+these needful additions and were finally successful, but they found that
+success brought another source of annoyance. Escaping Scylla they struck
+Charybdis. So high did the reputation of their chief workmen rise, that
+they were early sought after and tempted to leave their positions. Even
+the two trained fitters sent to London to cure the Bow engine we have
+just spoken of were offered strong inducements to take positions in
+Russia. Watt writes Boulton, May 3, 1777, that he had just heard a great
+secret to the effect that Carless and Webb were probably going beyond
+sea, $5,000 per year having been offered for six years. They were
+promptly ordered home to Soho and warrants obtained for those who had
+attempted to induce them to abscond (strange laws these days!), "even
+though Carless be a drunken and comparatively useless fellow." Consider
+Watt's task, compelled to attempt the production of his new engines,
+complicated beyond the highest existing standard, without proper tools
+and with such workmen as Carless, whom he was glad to get and determined
+to keep, drunken and useless as he was.
+
+French agents appeared and tried to bribe some of the men to go to Paris
+and communicate Watt's plans to the contractor who had undertaken to
+pump water from the Seine for the supply of Paris. The German states
+sent emissaries for a similar purpose, and Baron Stein was specially
+ordered by his government to master the secret of the Watt engine, to
+obtain working plans, and bring away workmen capable of constructing it,
+the first step taken being to obtain access to the engine-rooms by
+bribing the workmen. All this is so positively stated by Smiles that we
+must assume that he quotes from authentic records. It is clear at all
+events that the attention of other nations was keenly drawn to the
+advent of an agency that promised to revolutionise existing conditions.
+Watt himself, at a critical part of his career (1773), as we have seen,
+had been tempted to accept an offer to enter the imperial service of
+Russia, carrying the then munificent salary of $5,000 per annum. Boulton
+wrote him: "Your going to Russia staggers me.... I wish to advise you
+for the best without regard to self, but I find I love myself so well
+that I should be very sorry to have you go, and I begin to repent
+sounding your trumpet at the Ambassador's."
+
+The imperial family of Russia were then much interested in the Soho
+works. The empress stayed for some time at Boulton's house, "and a
+charming woman she is," writes her host. Here is a glimpse of imperial
+activity and wise attention to what was going on in other lands which it
+was most desirous to transplant to their own. The emperor, and no less
+his wife, evidently kept their eyes open during their travels abroad.
+Imperial progresses we fear are seldom devoted to such practical ends,
+although the present king of Britain and his nephew the German emperor
+would not be blind to such things. It is a strange coincidence that the
+successor of this emperor, Tsar Nicholas, when grand duke, should have
+been denied admission to Soho works. Not that he was personally objected
+to, but that certain people of his suite might not be disinclined to
+take advantage of any new processes discovered. So jealously were
+improvements guarded in these days.
+
+Another source of care to the troubled Watt lay here. Naturally, only a
+few such men had been developed as could be entrusted to go to distant
+parts in charge of fellow-workmen and erect the finished engines. A
+union of many qualities was necessary here. Managers of erection had to
+be managers of men, by far the most complicated and delicate of all
+machinery, exceeding even the Watt engine in complexity. When the rare
+man was revealed, and the engine under his direction had proved itself
+the giant it was reputed, ensuring profitable return upon capital
+invested in works hitherto unproductive, as it often did, the sagacious
+owner would not readily consent to let the engineer leave. He could well
+afford to offer salary beyond the dreams of the worker, to a rider who
+knew his horse and to whom the horse took so kindly. The engineer loved
+_his_ engine, the engine which _he_ had seen grow in the shop under his
+direction and which _he_ had wholly erected.
+
+McAndrew's Song of Steam tells the story of the engineer's devotion to
+his engine, a song which only Kipling in our day could sing. The Scotch
+blood of the MacDonalds was needed for that gem; Kipling fortunately has
+it pure from his mother. McAndrew is homeward bound patting _his_ mighty
+engine as she whirls, and crooning over his tale:
+
+    That minds me of our Viscount loon--Sir Kenneth's kin--the chap
+    Wi' Russia leather tennis-shoon an' spar-decked yachtin'-cap.
+    I showed him round last week, o'er all--an' at the last says he:
+    "Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
+    Damned ijjit! I'd been doon that morn to see what ailed the throws,
+    Manholin', on my back--the cranks three inches off my nose.
+    Romance! Those first-class passengers they like it very well,
+    Printed an' bound in little books; but why don't poets tell?
+    I'm sick of all their quirks an' turns--the loves and doves they
+          dream--
+    Lord, send a man like Robbie Burns to sing the Song o' Steam!
+    To match wi' Scotia's noblest speech yon orchestra sublime,
+    Whaurto--uplifted like the Just--the tail-rods mark the time.
+    The crank-throws give the double-bass, the feed-pump sobs an' heaves,
+    An' now the main eccentrics start their quarrel on the sheaves:
+    Her time, her own appointed time, the rocking link-head bides,
+    Till--hear that note?--the rod's return whings glimmerin' through
+          the guides.
+    They're all awa'! True beat, full power, the clangin' chorus goes
+    Clear to the tunnel where they sit, my purrin' dynamos.
+    Interdependence absolute, foreseen, ordained, decreed,
+    To work, ye'll note, at any tilt an' every rate o' speed.
+    Fra' skylight lift to furnace-bars, backed, bolted, braced an' stayed,
+    An' singin' like the Mornin' Stars for joy that they are made;
+    While, out o' touch o' vanity, the sweatin' thrust-block says:
+    "Not unto us the praise, oh man, not unto us the praise!"
+    Now, a' together, hear them lift their lesson--theirs an' mine:
+    "Law, Order, Duty an' Restraint, Obedience, Discipline!"
+    Mill, forge an' try-pit taught them that when roarin' they arose,
+    An' whiles I wonder if a soul was gied them wi' the blows.
+    Oh for a man to weld it then, in one trip-hammer strain,
+    Till even first-class passengers could tell the meanin' plain!
+    But no one cares except mysel' that serve an' understand
+    My seven-thousand horse-power here. Eh, Lord!
+    They're grand--they're grand!
+    Uplift am I? When first in store the new-made beasties stood,
+    Were ye cast down that breathed the Word declarin' all things good?
+    Not so! O' that world-liftin' joy no after-fall could vex,
+    Ye've left a glimmer still to cheer the Man--the Artifex!
+    _That_ holds, in spite o' knock and scale, o' friction, waste an' slip,
+    An' by that light--now, mark my word--we'll build the Perfect Ship.
+    I'll never last to judge her lines or take her curve--not I.
+    But I ha' lived and I ha' worked. Be thanks to Thee, Most High!
+
+So the McAndrews of Watt's day were loth to part from _their_ engines,
+this feeling being in the blood of true engineers. On the other hand,
+just such men, in numbers far beyond the supply, were needed by the
+builders, who in one sense were almost if not quite as deeply concerned
+as the owners, in having proved, capable, engine managers remain in
+charge of their engines, thus enhancing their reputation. Endless
+trouble ensued from the lack of managing enginemen, a class which had
+yet to be developed, but which was sure to arise in time through the
+educative policy adopted, which was already indeed slowly producing
+fruit.
+
+Meanwhile, to meet the present situation, Watt resolved to simplify the
+engine, taking a step backward, which gives foundation for Smeaton's
+acute criticism upon its complexity. We have seen that the working of
+steam expansively was one of Watt's early inventions. Some of the new
+engines were made upon this plan, which involved the adoption of some of
+the most troublesome of the machinery. It was ultimately decided that
+to operate this was beyond the ability of the obtainable enginemen of
+the day.
+
+It must not be understood that expansion was abandoned. On the contrary,
+it was again introduced by Watt at a later stage and in better form.
+Since his time it has extended far beyond what he could have ventured
+upon under the conditions of that day. "Yet," as Kelvin says, "the
+triple and quadruple expansion engine of our day all lies in the
+principle Watt had so fully developed in his day."
+
+[1] If those in London had only listened to Franklin and taken his
+advice when he pleaded for British liberties for British subjects in
+America! It is refreshing to read in our day how completely the view
+regarding colonies has changed in Britain. These are now pronounced
+"Independent nations, free to go or stay in the empire, as they choose,"
+the very surest way to prolong the connection. This is true
+statesmanship. Being free, the chains become decorations and cease to
+chafe the wearer, unless great growth comes, when the colony must at its
+maturity perforce either merge with the motherland under one joint
+government or become a free and independent nation, giving her sons a
+country of their own for which to live, and, if necessary, to die.
+
+[2] The mention of Burke and Bristol so soon after the note of Boulton
+upon Dr. Small's passing, recalls one of Burke's many famous sentences,
+one perhaps unequalled under the circumstances. The candidate opposing
+him for Parliament died during the canvass. When Burke next addressed
+the people after the sad event, his first words were:
+
+    "What shadows we are; what shadows we pursue."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM
+
+
+Watt's permanent settlement in Birmingham had for some time been seen to
+be inevitable, all his time being needed there. Domestic matters,
+including the care of his two children, with which he had hitherto been
+burdened, pressed hard upon him, and he had been greatly depressed by
+finding his old father quite in his dotage, although he was not more
+than seventy-five. Watt was alone and very unhappy during a visit he
+made to Greenock.
+
+Before returning to Birmingham, he married Miss MacGregor, daughter of a
+Glasgow man of affairs, who was the first in Britain to use chlorine for
+bleaching, the secret of which Berthollet, its inventor, had
+communicated to Watt.
+
+Pending the marriage, it was advisable that the partnership with Boulton
+as hitherto agreed upon should be executed. Watt writes so to Boulton,
+and the arrangement between the partners is indicated by the following
+passage of Watt's letter to him:
+
+    As you may have possibly mislaid my missive to you concerning
+    the contract, I beg just to mention what I remember of the
+    terms.
+
+    1. I to assign to you two-thirds of the property of the
+    invention.
+
+    2. You to pay all expenses of the Act or others incurred before
+    June, 1775 (the date of the Act), and also the expense of future
+    experiments, which money is to be sunk without interest by you,
+    being the consideration you pay for your share.
+
+    3. You to advance stock-in-trade bearing interest, but having no
+    claim on me for any part of that, further than my intromissions;
+    the stock itself to be your security and property.
+
+    4. I to draw one-third of the profits so soon as any arise from
+    the business, after paying the workmen's wages and goods
+    furnished, but abstract from the stock-in-trade, excepting the
+    interest thereof, which is to be deducted before a balance is
+    struck.
+
+    5. I to make drawings, give directions, and make surveys, the
+    company paying for the travelling expenses to either of us when
+    upon engine business.
+
+    6. You to keep the books and balance them once a year.
+
+    7. A book to be kept wherein to be marked such transactions as
+    are worthy of record, which, when signed by both, to have the
+    force of the contract.
+
+    8. Neither of us to alienate our share of the other, and if
+    either of us by death or otherwise shall be incapacitated from
+    acting for ourselves, the other of us to be the sole manager
+    without contradiction or interference of heirs, executors,
+    assignees or others; but the books to be subject to their
+    inspection, and the acting partner of us to be allowed a
+    reasonable commission for extra trouble.
+
+    9. The contract to continue in force for twenty-five years, from
+    the 1st of June, 1775, when the partnership commenced,
+    notwithstanding the contract being of later date.
+
+    10. Our heirs, executors and assignees bound to observance.
+
+    11. In case of demise of both parties, our heirs, etc., to
+    succeed in same manner, and if they all please, they may burn
+    the contract.
+
+    If anything be very disagreeable in these terms, you will find
+    me disposed to do everything reasonable for your satisfaction.
+
+Boulton's reply was entirely satisfactory, and upon this basis the
+arrangement was closed.
+
+Watt, with his usual want of confidence in himself in business affairs,
+was anxious that Boulton should come to him at Glasgow and arrange all
+pecuniary matters connected with the marriage. Watt had faced the
+daughter and conquered, but trembled at the thought of facing the
+father-in-law. He appeals to his partner as follows:
+
+    I am afraid that I shall otherwise make a very bad bargain in
+    money matters, which wise men like you esteem the most essential
+    part, and I myself, although I be an enamoured swain, do not
+    altogether despise. You may perhaps think it odd that in the
+    midst of my friends here I should call for your help; but the
+    fact is that from several reasons I do not choose to place that
+    confidence in any of my friends here that would be necessary in
+    such a case, and I do not know any of them that have more to say
+    with the gentleman in question than I have myself. Besides, you
+    are the only person who can give him satisfactory information
+    concerning my situation.
+
+This being impracticable, as explained by Boulton, who thoroughly
+approved of the union, the partnership and Boulton's letter were
+accepted by the judicious father-in-law as satisfactory evidence that
+his daughter's future was secure. Boulton states in his letter, July,
+1776:
+
+    It may be difficult to say what is the value of your property in
+    partnership with me. However, I will give it a name, and I do
+    say that I would willingly give you two, or perhaps three
+    thousand pounds for your assignment of your third part of the
+    Act of Parliament. But I should be sorry to make you so bad a
+    bargain, or to make any bargain at all that tended to deprive me
+    of your friendship, acquaintance, and assistance, hoping that we
+    shall harmoniously live to wear out the twenty-five years, which
+    I had rather do than gain a Nabob's fortune by being the sole
+    proprietor.
+
+This is the kind of expression from the heart to make a partner happy
+and resolve to do his utmost for one who in the recipient's heart had
+transposed positions, and is now friend first, and partner afterward.
+
+The marriage took place in July, 1776. Two children were born, both of
+whom died in youth. Mrs. Watt lived until a ripe old age and enjoyed the
+fruits of her husband's success and fame. She died in 1832. Arago
+praises her, and says "Various talents, sound judgment, and strength of
+mind rendered her a worthy companion."
+
+It is difficult to realise that many yet with us were contemporaries of
+Mrs. Watt, and not a few yet living were contemporaries of Watt himself,
+for he did not pass away until 1819, eighty-six years ago, so much a
+thing of yesterday is the material development and progress of the
+world, which had its basis, start and accomplishment in the steam
+engine.
+
+The reasons given by Boulton for being unable to proceed to the side of
+his friend and partner in Glasgow, shed clear light upon the condition
+of affairs at Soho. Their London agent, like Watt, was also to be
+married and would be absent. Fothergill had to proceed to London. Scale,
+one of the managers, was absent. Important visitors were constantly
+arriving. Said Boulton:
+
+    Our copper bottom hath plagued us very much by steam leaks, and
+    therefore I have had one cast (with its conducting pipe) all in
+    one piece; since which the engine doth not take more than 10
+    feet of steam, and I hope to reduce that quantity, as we have
+    just received the new piston, which shall be put in and at work
+    tomorrow. Our Soho engine never was in such good order as at
+    present. Bloomfield and Willey (engines) are both well, and I
+    doubt not but Bow engine will be better than any of 'em.
+
+He concludes, "I did not sleep last night, my mind being absorbed by
+steam." Means for increasing the heating surface swept through his mind,
+by applying "in copper spheres within the water," the present flue
+system, also for working steam expansively, "being clear the principle
+is sound."
+
+To add to Boulton's anxieties, he had received a summons to attend the
+Solicitor-General next week in opposition to Gainsborough, a clergyman
+who claimed to be the original inventor. "This is a disagreeable
+circumstance, particularly at this season, when you are absent. Harrison
+is in London and idleness is in our engine shop."
+
+Watt wrote Boulton on July 28, 1776, apologising for his long absence
+and stating he was now ready to return, and would start "Tuesday first"
+for Liverpool, where he expected to meet Boulton. Meanwhile, the latter
+had been called to London by the Gainsborough business. A note from him,
+however, reached Watt at Liverpool, in which he says, "As to your
+absence, say nothing about it. I will forgive it this time, _provided
+you promise me never to marry again_."
+
+In due time, Mr. and Mrs. Watt arrived and settled early in August,
+1776, in Birmingham, which was hereafter to be their permanent home,
+although, as we shall see, Watt never ceased to keep in close touch with
+his native town of Greenock and his Glasgow friends. His heart still
+warmed to the tartan, the soft, broad Scotch accent never forsook him;
+nor, we may be sure, did the refrain ever leave his heart----
+
+    And may dishonour blot our name
+      And quench our household fires,
+    If me or mine forget thy name,
+      Thou dear land of my Sires,
+
+Many a famous Scot has the fair South in recent times called to
+her--Stephenson, Ruskin, Carlyle, Mill, Gladstone and others--but never
+before or since, one whose work was the transformation of the world.
+
+At last we have Watt permanently settled alongside the great works to
+which he was hereafter to devote his rare abilities until his retirement
+at the expiration of the partnership in 1800. His labors at Soho soon
+began to tell. The works increased their celebrity beyond all others
+then known, for materials, workmanship and invention.
+
+The mines of Cornwall promised to become unworkable; indeed, many
+already had became so. The Newcomen engines could no longer drain the
+deepened mines. Several orders for Watt engines had been received, and
+as much depended upon the success of the first, Watt resolved to
+superintend its erection himself. Mrs. Watt and he started over the
+terrible road into Cornwall, and had to take up their abode with the
+superintendent of the mine, there being no other house for miles around.
+Naturally the builders and attendants of the Newcomen engine viewed
+Watt's invasion of their district with no kindly feelings. Great
+jealousy arose and Watt's sensitive nature was sorely tried. Many
+attempts to thwart him were met with, and, taken altogether, his life in
+Cornwall was far from agreeable.
+
+The engine was erected, the day of trial came, mining men, engineers,
+mining proprietors and others assembled from all quarters to see the
+start. Many of the spectators interested in other engines would not have
+shed tears had it failed, but it started splendidly making eleven
+eight-foot strokes per minute, which broke the record. Three cheers for
+the Scotch engineer! It soon worked with greater power and more
+steadily, and "forked" more water than the ordinary engines with only
+about one-third the consumption of coal. Watt wrote:
+
+    I understand all the west country captains are to be here
+    tomorrow to see the prodigy. The velocity, violence, magnitude,
+    and horrible noise of the engine give universal satisfaction to
+    all beholders, believers or not. I have once or twice trimmed
+    the engine to end the stroke gracefully and to make less noise,
+    but Mr. Wilson cannot sleep without it seems quite furious, so I
+    have left it to the enginemen; and, by the by, the noise seems
+    to convey great ideas of its power to the ignorant, who seem to
+    be no more taken with modest merit in an engine than in a man.
+
+Well said, modest, reserved philosopher with vast horse-power in that
+big head of yours, working in the closet noiselessly, driving deep but
+silently into the bosom of nature's secrets, pumping her deepest mines,
+discovering and bringing to the surface the genius which lay in steam to
+do your bidding and revolutionise life on earth! In this, the first
+triumph, there was recompense for all the trials Watt and his wife had
+endured in Cornwall.
+
+Readers will note that no workman had yet been developed who could be
+trusted to erect the engine. The master inventor had to go himself as
+the mechanical genius certain to cure all defects and ensure success.
+This shows how indispensable Watt was.
+
+Orders now flowed in, and Watt was needed to prepare the plans and
+drawings, no one being capable of relieving him of this. To-day we have
+draftsmen by the thousand to whom it would be easy routine work, as we
+have thousands to whom the erection of the Watt engine would be play.
+Watt was everywhere. At length he had to confess that "a very little
+more of this hurrying and vexation would knock me up altogether." At
+this moment he had just been called to return to Cornwall to erect the
+second engine. He says "I fancy I must be cut in pieces and a portion
+sent to every tribe in Israel." We may picture him reciting in
+Falstaffian mood, "Would my name were not so terrible to the enemy
+(deep-mine water) as it is. There can't a drowned-out mine peep its head
+out but I'm thrust upon it. Well, well, it always was the trick of my
+countrymen to make a good thing too common. Better rust to death than be
+scoured to nothing by this perpetual motion."
+
+Watt had a hard time of it in Cornwall during his next stay there, for
+he had to go again. He arrives at Redruth to find many troubles.
+
+    Forbes' eduction-pipe is a vile job, he writes, and full of
+    holes. The cylinder they have cast for Chacewater is still
+    worse, for it will hardly do at all. The Soho people have sent
+    here Chacewater pipe instead of Wheal Union, and the gudgeon
+    pipe has not arrived with the nozzles. These repeated
+    disappointments will ruin our credit in the country, and I
+    cannot stay here to bear the shame of such failures of promise.
+
+It is easy for present-day captains of industry to plume themselves upon
+their ability to select men sure to succeed well with any undertaking,
+and assume that Watt lacked the indispensable talent for selection, but
+he had been driven by sad experience to trust none but himself, the
+skilled workmen needed to co-operate with him not yet having been
+developed.
+
+We have not touched upon another source of great anxiety to him at this
+time. The enterprising Boulton would not have been the organiser he was
+unless blessed with a sanguine disposition and the capacity for shedding
+troubles. The business was rapidly extending in many branches, all
+needing capital; the engine business, promising though it was, was no
+exception. Little money was yet due from sales and much had been spent
+developing the invention. Boulton's letter to Watt constantly urged cash
+collections, while mine-owners were not disposed to pay until further
+tests were made. Boulton suggested loans from Truro bankers on security
+of the engines, but Watt found this impracticable. The engines were
+doing astonishingly well to-day, but who could ensure their lasting
+qualities? Watt shows good judgment in suggesting that Wilkinson, the
+famous foundryman, should be taken into partnership. He urges his
+enterprising partner to apply the pruning knife and cut down expenses
+naively assuring him that "he was practising all the frugality in his
+power." As Watt's personal expenses then were only ten dollars per week,
+a smile rises at the prudent Scot's possible contribution to reduction
+in expenditure. But he was on the right lines, and at least gave Boulton
+the benefit of example. Watt was never disposed to look on the bright
+side of things, and to add to Boulton's load, the third partner,
+Fothergill, was even more desponding than Watt. When Boulton went away
+to raise means, he was pursued by letters from Fothergill telling him
+day by day of imperative needs. In one he was of opinion that "the
+creditors must be called together; better to face the worst than to go
+on in the neck-and-neck race with ruin." Boulton would hurry back to
+quiet Fothergill and keep the ship afloat. Here he shines out
+resplendently. He proved equal to the emergency. His courage and
+determination rose in proportion to the difficulties to be overcome,
+borne up by his invariable hope and unshakable belief in the value of
+Watt's condensing engine, he triumphed at last, pledging, as security
+for a loan of $70,000, the royalties derivable from the engine patents,
+and an annuity for a loan of $35,000 more. So small a sum as $105,000
+sufficed to keep afloat the big ship laden with all their treasures.
+
+There was a period of great depression in Britain when Boulton and Watt
+were thus in deep water, and at such times credit is sensitive in the
+extreme. A small balance on the right side performs wonders. This
+recalls to the writer how, once in the history of his own firm, credit
+was kept high during a panic by using the identical sum Boulton raised,
+$70,000, from a reserve fund that had been laid away and came in very
+opportunely at the critical time. Every single dollar weighs a
+hundredfold when credit trembles in the balance. A leading nerve
+specialist in New York once said that the worst malady he had to treat
+was the man of affairs whose credit was suspected. His unfailing remedy
+was: "Call your creditors together, explain all and ask their support. I
+can then do you some good, but not till then." His patients who did this
+found themselves restored to vigor. They were supported by creditors and
+all was bright once more. The wise doctor was sound in his advice. If
+the firm has neither speculated nor gambled (synonymous terms), nor
+lived extravagantly, nor endorsed for others, and the business is on a
+solid foundation, no people have so much at stake in sustaining it as
+the creditors; they will rally round it and think more of the firm than
+ever, because they will see behind their money the best of all
+securities--men at the helm who are not afraid and know how to meet a
+storm.
+
+Boulton's timid partners no doubt were amazed that he was so blind to
+the dangers which they with clearer vision saw so clearly. How deluded
+they were. We may be sure neither of them saw the danger half as vividly
+as he, but it is not the part of a leader to reveal to his fellows all
+that he sees or fears. His part is to look dangers steadily in the face
+and challenge them. It is the great leader who inspires in his followers
+contempt for the danger which he sees in much truer proportion than
+they. This Boulton did, for behind all else in his character there lay
+the indomitable will, the do or die resolve. He had staked his life upon
+the hazard of a die and he would stand the cost. "But if we fail," often
+said the timid pair to him, as Macbeth did to his resolute partner, and
+the same answer came, "_We_ fail." That's all. "One knockdown will not
+finish this fight. We'll get up again, never fear. We know no such word
+as fail."[1]
+
+One source of serious trouble arose from Watt and Boulton having been
+so anxious at first to introduce their engines that they paid small
+regard to terms. When their success was proved, they offered to settle,
+taking one-third the value of the fuel saved. This was a liberal offer,
+for, in addition to the mine-owners saving two-thirds of the former cost
+of fuel consumed by the previous engines, mines became workable, which
+without the Watt engine must have been abandoned. These terms however
+were not accepted, and a long series of disputes arose, ending in some
+cases only with the patent-right itself. It was resolved that all future
+engines should be furnished only upon the terms before stated, Watt
+declaring that otherwise he would not put pen to paper to make new
+drawings. "Let our terms be moderate," he writes, "and, if possible,
+consolidated into money _a priori_, and it is certain we shall get
+_some_ money, enough to keep us out of jail, in continual apprehension
+of which I live at present." Imprisonment for debt, let it be
+remembered, had not been abolished. One of the most beneficent forward
+steps that our time can boast of is the Bankruptcy Court. However hard
+we may yet be upon offenders against us, society, through humane laws,
+forgives our debtors in money matters, and gives a clear bill of health
+after honorable acquittal in bankruptcy, and a fresh start.
+
+The result proved Watt's wisdom. His engines were needed to save the
+mines. No other could. Applications came in freely upon his terms, and
+as Watt was a poor hand at bargaining, he insisted that Boulton should
+come to Cornwall and attend to that part.
+
+Meanwhile great attention was being paid to the works and all pertaining
+to the men and methods. The firm established perhaps the first benefit
+society of workmen. Every one was a member and contributed according to
+his earnings. Out of this fund payments were made to the sick or
+disabled in varying amounts. No member of the Soho Friendly Society,
+except a few irreclaimable drunkards, ever came upon the parish.
+
+When Boulton's son came of age, seven hundred were dined. No
+well-behaved workman was ever turned adrift. Fathers employed introduced
+their sons into the works and brought them up under their own eye,
+watching over their conduct and mechanical training. Thus generation
+after generation followed each other at Soho works.
+
+On another occasion Boulton writes Watt in Cornwall, "I have thought it
+but respectful to give our folks a dinner to-day. There were present
+Murdoch, Lawson, Pearson, Perkins, Malcom, Robert Muir, all Scotchmen,
+John Bull and Wilson and self, for the engines are now all finished and
+the men have behaved well and are attached to us."
+
+Six Scotch and three English in the English works of Soho thought worthy
+of dining with their employer! It was, we may be sure, a very rare
+occurrence in that day, but worthy of the true captain of industry. Here
+is an early "invasion" from the north. We are reminded of Sir Charles
+Dilke's statement in his "Greater Britain," that, in his tour round the
+world, he found ten Scotchmen for every Englishman in high position.
+Owing, of course, to the absence of scope at home the Scot has had to
+seek his career abroad.
+
+A master-stroke this, probably the first dinner of its kind in Britain,
+and no doubt more highly appreciated by the honored guests than an
+advance in wages. Splendid workmen do not live upon wages alone.
+Appreciation felt and shown by their employer, as in this case, is the
+coveted reward.
+
+We have read how Watt was much troubled in Scotland with poor mechanics.
+Not one good craftsman could he then find. After seeing Soho, where the
+standard was much higher, he declared that the Scotch mechanic was very
+much inferior; he was prejudiced against them. Murdoch, however, the
+first Scot at Soho, soon eclipsed all, and no doubt under his wing
+other Scots gained a trial with the result indicated. It is very
+significant that even in the earliest days of the steam engine,
+Scotchmen should exhibit such talent for its construction, forecasting
+their present pre-eminence in marine engineering.
+
+Small wonder that the Soho works became the model for all others. The
+last words in Boulton's letter, "and are attached to us," tell the
+story. No danger of strikes, of lockouts, or quarrels of any kind in
+such establishments as that of Boulton and Watt, who proved that they in
+turn were attached to their men. Mutual attachment between employers and
+employed is the panacea for all troubles--yes, better than a panacea,
+the preventer of troubles.
+
+After repeated calls from Watt, Boulton took the journey to Cornwall in
+October, 1778, although Fothergill was again uttering lamentable
+prophecies of impending ruin, and the London agent was imploring his
+presence there upon financial matters pressing in the extreme. Boulton
+succeeded in borrowing $10,000 from Truro bankers on the security of
+engines erected, and settled several disputes, getting $3,500 per year
+royalty for one engine and $2,000 per year for another. At last, after
+nine years of arduous labor since the invention was hailed as
+successful, the golden harvest so long expected began to replenish the
+empty treasury. The heavy liabilities, however, remained a source of
+constant anxiety. No remedy could be found against "this consumption of
+the purse."
+
+Watt had again to encounter the lack of competent, sober workmen to run
+engines. The Highland blood led him at last into severe measures, and he
+insisted upon discharging two or three of the most drunken. Here Boulton
+had great difficulty in restraining him. Much had to be endured, and
+occasional bouts of drunkenness overlooked, although serious accidents
+resulted. At last two men appeared whose services proved
+invaluable--Murdoch, already mentioned, and Law--one of whom became
+famous. Watt was absent when the former called and asked Boulton for
+employment. The young Scot was the son of a well-known millwright near
+Ayr who had made several improvements. His famous son worked with him,
+but being ambitious and hearing of the fame of Boulton and Watt, he
+determined to seek entrance to Soho works and learn the highest order of
+handicraft. Boulton had told him that there was at present no place
+open, but noticing the strange cap the awkward young man had been
+dangling in his hands, he asked what it was made of. "Timmer," said the
+lad. "What, out of wood?" "Yes." "_How_ was it made?" "I turned it
+mysel' in a bit lathey o' my own making." This was enough for that rare
+judge of men. Here was a natural-born mechanic, certain. The young man
+was promptly engaged for two years at fifteen shillings per week when
+in shop, seventeen shillings when abroad, and eighteen shillings when in
+London. His history is the usual march upward until he became his
+employers' most trusted manager in all their mechanical operations.
+While engaged upon one critical job, where the engine had defied
+previous attempts to put it to rights, the people in the house where
+Murdoch lodged were awakened one night by heavy tramping in his room
+over-head. Upon entering, Murdoch was seen in his bed clothes heaving
+away at the bed post in his sleep, calling out "Now she goes, lads, now
+she goes." His heart was in his work. He had a mission, and only one--to
+make that engine go.
+
+Of course he rose. There's no holding down such a "dreamer" anywhere in
+this world. It was not only that he had zeal, for he had sense with it,
+and was not less successful in conquering the rude Cornishmen who had
+baffled, annoyed and intimidated Watt. He won their hearts. His ability
+did not end with curing the defects of machinery; he knew how to manage
+men. At first he had to depend upon his physical powers. He was an
+athlete not indisposed to lead the strenuous life. He had not been very
+long in Cornwall before half a dozen of the mining captains, a class
+that had tormented poor, retiring and modest Watt, entered the
+engine-room and began their bullying tricks on him. The Scotch blood was
+up, Murdoch quietly locked the door and said to the captains, "Now then
+gentlemen, you shall not leave until we have settled matters once for
+all." He selected the biggest Cornishman and squared off. The contest
+was soon over. Murdoch vanquished the bully and was ready for the next.
+The captains, seeing the kind of man he was, offered terms of peace,
+hands were shaken all round and they parted good friends, and remained
+so. We are past that rude age. The skilled, educated manager of to-day
+can use no weapon so effectively with skilled men as the supreme force
+of gentleness, the manner, language and action of the educated man, even
+to the calm, low voice never raised to passionate pitch. He conquers and
+commands others because he has command of himself.
+
+We must not lose sight of Murdoch. In addition to his rare qualities, he
+possessed mechanical genius. He was the inventor of lighting by gas, and
+it was he who made the first model of a locomotive. There was no
+emergency with engines, no accident, no blunder, but Murdoch was called
+in. We read with surprise that his wages even in 1780 were only five
+dollars per week. He then modestly asked for an advance, but this was
+not given. A present of one hundred dollars, however, was made to him in
+recognition of his unusual services. Probably the explanation of the
+failure to increase his wages at the time was that, owing to the
+condition of the business, no rise in wages could be made to one which
+would involve an advance to others. Murdoch remained loyal to the
+firm, however, although invited into partnership by another. Afterward
+he received due reward. He had always a strong aversion to partnership,
+no doubt well founded in this case, for during many years failure seemed
+almost as likely as success. Watt has much to say in his letters about
+"William" (Murdoch), who, more than anyone, relieved him from
+trouble.[2]
+
+The bargainings with mine-owners brought on intense heartaches and broke
+Watt down completely. Boulton had to go to him again in Cornwall in the
+autumn of 1779, and as usual succeeded in adjusting many disputes by
+wise compromises with the grasping owners which Watt's strict sense of
+justice had denied. Many of these had paid no royalties for years,
+others disputed Watt's unerring register of fuel consumption (another of
+his most ingenious inventions now in general use for many purposes), a
+more heinous offense in his eyes than that of non-payment. "The
+rascality of man," he writes, "is almost beyond belief." He never was
+more despondent or more irritable than now. No one was better aware of
+his weakness than himself. In short, his heartaches and nervousness
+unfitted him for business. As usual, he attributed his discouragement
+chiefly to his financial obligations. The firm was as hard pressed as
+ever. Indeed a new source of danger had developed. Fothergill's affairs
+became involved, and had it not been for Boulton's capital and credit,
+the firm of Boulton and Fothergill could not have maintained payment.
+This had caused a drain upon their resources. Boulton sold the estate
+which had come to him by his wife, and the greater part of his father's
+property, and mortgaged the remainder. It is evident that the great
+captain had taken in hand far too many enterprises. Probably he had not
+heard the new doctrine: "Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch
+that basket." He had even ventured considerable sums in blockade running
+during the American Revolutionary War. It was not without good reason,
+therefore, that the more cautious Scot addressed to him so many pathetic
+letters: "I beg of you to attend to these money matters. I cannot rest
+in my bed until they have some determinate form." Watt's inexperience in
+money matters caused apprehensions of ruin to arise whenever financial
+measures were discussed. He was at this time utterly wretched, and
+Mrs. Watt at last became anxious, long and bravely as she had hitherto
+borne up and striven to dispel her husband's fears. Never before had she
+ventured to speak to Boulton upon the subject. She now broke the silence
+and wrote him in Cornwall a touching letter, stating that her husband's
+health and spirits had become much worse since Boulton had left Soho. "I
+know there are several things that so prey upon his mind as to render
+him perfectly miserable. They never cross his mind, but he is rendered
+unfit to do anything for a long time." She describes these financial
+demons that torment him and begs that her writing should not be told to
+Watt, as it might only add to his troubles. The appeal brings Mrs. Watt
+before us in a most engaging light.
+
+A study of the problem was made upon Boulton's return and he agreed to
+close two departments of the business which were so far unprofitable,
+thus entering upon the right path. The engine having proved itself
+indispensable, the demand for it was becoming great and pressing from
+various countries. To concentrate upon its manufacture was obviously the
+true policy. The great captain's enterprise was not often expended upon
+failures, and it is with pleasure we find that among the profitable
+branches which Boulton had encouraged Watt in introducing at Soho, was
+the copying-press, which Watt invented in 1778, and which we use to
+this day. In July of that year he writes Dr. Black that he has "lately
+discovered a method of copying writing instantaneously, provided it has
+been written within twenty-four hours. I send you a specimen and will
+impart the secret if it will be of any use to you. It enables me to copy
+all my business letters." He kept this secret for two years, and in May,
+1780, secured a patent after he had completed details of the press and
+experimented with the ink. One hundred and fifty were made and sold.
+Thirty of these went abroad. It steadily made its way. Watt, writing
+some thirty years later, said it had proved so useful to him that it was
+well worth all the trouble of perfecting it, even if it brought no
+profit.
+
+We think of Watt and the steam engine appears. Let us however note the
+unobtrusive little copying-press on the table at his side. Extremes meet
+here. It would be difficult to name an invention more universally used,
+in all offices where man labors in any field of activity. In the list of
+modest inventions of greatest usefulness, the modern copying-press must
+take high rank, and this we owe entirely to Watt.
+
+Of the same period as the copying-machine is his invention of a
+drying-machine for cloth, consisting of three cylinders of copper over
+which the cloth must turn over and under while cylinders are filled with
+steam, the cloth to be alternately wound off and on the two wooden
+rollers, by which means it will pass over three cylinders in
+succession. This machine was erected for Watt's father-in-law, Mr.
+MacGregor in Glasgow, by an ingenious mechanic, John Gardiner, often
+employed by Watt in earlier years. "This I apprehend," he writes to
+David Brewster in 1814, "to be the original from which such machines
+were made." When we consider the extent to which such steam
+drying-machines are used in our day, our estimate of the credit due to
+Watt cannot be small. The drying-machine is no unfit companion to the
+copying-machine.
+
+Watt revisited Cornwall in 1781 to make an inspection of all the
+engines. Much he found needing attention and improvement. His evenings
+were spent designing "road steam-carriages." This was before the day of
+railroads, and the carriages were to be driven by steam over the
+ordinary coach roads. He filled a quarto drawing-book with different
+plans for these, and covered the idea in one of his patent
+specifications. Boulton suggested in 1781 that the idea of rotary motion
+should be developed, which Watt had from the first regarded as of prime
+importance. It was for this he had invented his original wheel engine,
+and in his first patent of 1769 he describes one method of securing it.
+It occurred to him that the ordinary engine might be adapted to give the
+rotary motion. He wrote from Cornwall to Boulton: "As to the circular
+motion, I will apply it as soon as I can." He prepared a model upon his
+return to Soho, using a crank connected with the working-beam of the
+engine for that purpose, which worked satisfactorily. There was nothing
+new in the crank motion; it was used on every spinning-wheel,
+grind-stone and foot-lathe turned by hand, but its application to the
+steam-engine was new. As early as 1771, he writes:
+
+    I have at times had my thoughts a good deal upon the subject. In
+    general, it appears to me that a crank of a sufficient sweep
+    will be by much the sweetest motion, and perhaps not the
+    dearest, if its durability be considered ... I then resolved to
+    adopt the crank ... Of this I caused a model to be made, which
+    performed to satisfaction. But being then very much engaged with
+    other business, I neglected to take a patent immediately, and
+    having employed a blackguard of the name of Cartwright (who was
+    afterward hanged), about this model, he, when in company with
+    some of the same sort who worked at Wasborough's mill, and were
+    complaining of its irregularities and frequent disasters, told
+    them he could put them in a way to make a rotative motion which
+    would not go out of order nor stun them with its noise, and
+    accordingly explained to them what he had seen me do. Soon after
+    which, John Steed, who was engineer at Wasborough's mill, took a
+    patent for a rotative motion with a crank, and applied it to
+    their engine. Suspicions arising of Cartwright's treachery, he
+    was strictly questioned, and confessed his part in the
+    transaction when too late to be of service to us.
+
+Overtures were made by Wasborough to exchange patents and work together,
+which Watt scornfully rejected. He writes:
+
+    Though I am not so saucy as many of my countrymen, I have enough
+    innate pride to prevent me from doing a mean action because a
+    servile prudence may dictate it ... I will never meanly sue a
+    thief to give me my own again unless I have nothing left behind.
+
+His blood was up. No dealings with rascals!
+
+July, 1781, Watt had finished his studies, went to Penryn, and swore he
+had "invented certain new methods of applying the vibrating or
+reciprocating motion of steam or fire engines to produce a continued
+rotation or circular motion round an axis or centre, and thereby to give
+motion to the wheels of mills or other machines."
+
+Watt proceeded to work out the plan of the rotary engine, stimulated by
+numerous inquiries for steam engines for driving all kinds of mills. He
+found that "the people in London, Manchester and Birmingham are
+steam-mill mad."
+
+During many long years of trial with their financial troubles, inferior
+and drunken workmen, disappointing engines, Cornish mine-owners to annoy
+him, it is highly probable that Watt only found relief in retiring to
+his garret to gratify his passion for solving difficult mechanical
+problems. We may even imagine that from his serious mission--the
+development of the engine--which was ever present, he sometimes flew to
+the numerous less exhausting inventions for recreation, as the weary
+student flies to fiction. His mind at this period seems never to have
+been at rest. His voluminous correspondence constantly reveals one
+invention after another upon which he was engaged. A new micrometer, a
+dividing screw, a new surveying-quadrant, problems for clearing the
+observed distance of the moon from a star of the effects of refraction
+and parallax, a drawing-machine, a copying-machine for sculpture--anything
+and everything he used or saw seems immediately to have been subjected to
+the question: "Cannot this be improved?" usually with a response in the
+affirmative.
+
+As we have read, he had long studied the question of a locomotive steam
+carriage. In Muirhead's Biography, several pages are devoted to this. In
+his seventh "new improvement," in his patent of 1784, he describes "the
+principle and construction of steam engines which are applied to give
+motion to wheel carriages for removing persons, goods, or other matter
+from place to place, in which case the engines themselves must be
+portable." Mr. Murdoch made a model of the engine here specified which
+performed well, but nothing important came of all this until 1802, when
+the problem was instantly changed by Watt's friend, Mr. Edgeworth,
+writing him, "I have always thought that steam would become the
+universal lord, and that we should in time scorn post-horses. _An iron
+railroad would be a cheaper thing than a road of the common
+construction._" Here lay in a few words the idea from which our railway
+system has sprung. Surely Edgeworth deserves to be placed among the
+immortals.[3] As in the case of the steamship, however, the
+indispensable steam engine of Watt had to furnish the motive power. The
+railroad is only the necessary smooth track upon which the steam engine
+could perform its miracle. It is significant that steam power upon roads
+required the abandonment of the usual highway. So we may believe is the
+automobile to force new roads of its own, or to widen existing highways,
+rendering those safe under certain rules for speed of twenty miles per
+hour, or even more, when they were intended only for eight or ten.
+
+The reading lamp of Watt's day was a poor affair, and as he never saw an
+inefficient instrument without studying its improvement, he produced a
+new lamp. He wrote Argand of the Argand burner upon the subject and for
+a long time Watt lamps were made at the Soho works, which gave a light
+surpassing in steadiness and brilliance anything of the kind that had
+yet appeared. He gives four plans for lamps, "with the reservoir below
+and the stem as tall as you please." He also made an instrument for
+determining the specific gravity of liquids, and a year after this he
+"found out a method of working tubes of the elastic resin without
+dissolving it." The importance of such tubes for a thousand purposes in
+the arts and sciences is now appreciated.
+
+Watt gave much time to an arithmetical machine which he found
+exceedingly simple to plan, but he adds, "I have learnt by experience
+that in mechanics many things fall out between the cup and the mouth."
+He describes what it is to accomplish, but it remained for Babbage at a
+much later date to perfect the machine. A machine for copying sculpture
+amused him for a time but it was never finished.
+
+If any difficulty of a mechanical nature arose, people naturally turned
+to Watt for a solution. Thus the Glasgow University failed to get pipes
+for conveying water across the Clyde to stand, the channel of the river
+being covered with mud and shifty sand, full of inequalities, and
+subject to the pressure of a considerable body of water. Application was
+at last made to the recognised genius. If he could not solve it, who
+could? This was just one of the things that Watt liked to do. He
+promptly devised an articulated suction pipe with parts formed on the
+principle of a lobster's tail. This crustacean tube a thousand feet long
+solved the matter. Watt stated that his services were induced solely by
+a desire to be of use in procuring good water to the city of Glasgow,
+and to promote the prosperity of a company which had risked so much for
+the public good. These were handsomely acknowledged by the presentation
+to him of a valuable piece of plate.
+
+As another proof of Watt's habit of thinking of everything that could
+possibly be improved, it may be news to many readers that the
+consumption of the smoke from steam engines early attracted his
+attention, and that he patented devices for this. These have been
+substantially followed in the numerous attempts which have been made
+from time to time to reduce the huge volumes of smoke that keep so many
+cities under a cloud. He was successful and his son James writes to him
+in 1790 from Manchester:
+
+    It is astonishing what an impression the smoke-consuming power
+    of the engine has made upon everybody hereabouts. They scarcely
+    trusted to the evidence of their senses. You would be diverted
+    to hear the strange hypotheses which have been stated to account
+    for it.
+
+This is all very well. It is certain that most of the smoke made in
+manufacturing concerns can be consumed, if manufacturers are compelled
+by law to erect sufficient heating surface and to include the well-known
+appliances, including those for careful firing, but no city so far as
+the writer knows has ever been able to enforce effective laws. There
+remain the dwellings of the people to deal with, which give forth smoke
+in large cities in the aggregate far exceeding that made by the
+manufacturing plants. New York pursues the only plan for ensuring the
+clearest skies of any large city in the world where coal is generally
+used, by making the use of bituminous coal unlawful. The enormous growth
+of present New York (45 per cent. in last decade) is not a little
+dependent upon the attraction of clear blue sides and the resulting
+cleanliness of all things in and about the city compared with others.
+When, by the progress of invention or new methods of distributing heat,
+smoke is banished, as it probably will be some day, many rich citizens
+will remain in their respective western cities instead of flocking to
+the clear blue-skied metropolis, as they are now so generally doing.
+
+Such were some of Watt's by-products. His recreation, if found at all,
+was found in change of occupation. We read of no idle days, no pleasure
+trips, no vacations, only change of work.
+
+Rumors of new inventions of engines far excelling his continued to
+disturb Watt, and much of his time was given to investigation. He
+thought of a caloric air engine as possibly one of the new ideas; then
+of the practicability of producing mechanical power by the absorption
+and condensation of gas on the one hand and by its disengagement and
+expansion on the other. His mind seemed to range over the entire field
+of possibilities.
+
+The Hornblower engine had been heralded as sure to displace the Watt.
+When it was described, it proved to be as Watt said, "no less than our
+double-cylinder engine, worked upon our principle of expansion. It is
+fourteen years since I mentioned it to Mr. Smeaton." Watt had explained
+to Dr. Small his method of working steam expansively as early as May,
+1769, and had adopted it in the Soho engine and also in the Shadwell
+engine erected in that year.
+
+We have seen before that Watt had to retrace his steps and abandon for a
+time in later engines what he had before ventured upon.
+
+The application of steam for propelling boats upon the water was, at
+this time (1788), attracting much attention. Boulton and Watt were urged
+to undertake experiments. This they declined to entertain, having their
+facilities fully employed in their own field, but finally Fulton, on
+August 6, 1803, ordered an engine from them from his own drawings,
+intended for this purpose, repeating the order in person in 1804. It was
+shipped to America early in 1805, and in 1807 placed upon the Clermont,
+which ran upon the Hudson River as a passenger boat, attaining a speed
+of about five miles an hour. This was the first steamboat that was ever
+used for passengers, and altho Fulton neither invented the boat nor the
+engine, nor the combination of the two, still he is entitled to great
+credit for overcoming innumerable difficulties sufficient to discourage
+most men. Fulton, who was the son of a Scotsman from Dumfrieshire,
+visited Syminton's steamboat, the _Charlotte Dundas_, in Scotland, in
+1801, and had seen it successfully towing canal boats upon the Forth and
+Clyde Canal. This was the first boat ever propelled by steam
+successfully for commercial purposes. It was subsequently discarded, not
+because it did not tow the canal boats, but because the revolving
+paddle-wheels caused waves that threatened to wash away the canal banks.
+
+Several engines were sent to New York. The men in charge of one found on
+shipboard a pattern-maker going to America named John Hewitt. He settled
+in America January 12th, 1796, and became the father of the late famous
+and deeply lamented Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, long a member of Congress and
+afterward mayor of New York, foremost in many improvements in the city,
+the last being the Subway, just opened, which owes its inception to him.
+For this service, the Chamber of Commerce presented him with a memorial
+medal. Mr. Hewitt married a daughter of Peter Cooper, founder of the
+Cooper Institute, which owes its wonderful development chiefly to him.
+His children devote themselves and their fortunes to its management. At
+the time of his death in 1902, he was pronounced "the first private
+citizen of the Republic." Small engine-shops (of which the ruins still
+remain), called "Soho" after their prototype, were erected by his father
+near New York city, on the Greenwood division of the Erie Railroad. The
+railroad station was called "Soho" by Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, who was then
+president of the railroad company. Upon Mr. Hewitt's eightieth birthday
+congratulations poured in from all quarters. One cable from abroad
+attracted attention as appropriate and deserved: "Ten octaves every
+note truly struck and grandly sung." No man in private life passed away
+in our day with such general lamentation. The Republic got even more
+valuable material than engines from the old home in the ship that
+arrived on January 12, 1796.
+
+We must not permit ourselves to forget that it was not until the Watt
+engine was applied to steam navigation that the success of the latter
+became possible. It was only by this that it could be made practicable,
+so that the steamship is the product of the steam-engine, and it is to
+Watt we owe the modern twenty-three-thousand-ton monster (and larger
+monsters soon to come), which keeps its course against wind and tide,
+almost "unshaked of motion," for this can now properly be said.
+Passengers crossing the Atlantic from port to port now scarcely know
+anything of irregular motion, and never more than the gentlest of slight
+heaves, even during the gale that
+
+    "Catches the ruffian billows by their tops,
+    Curling their monstrous heads."
+
+The ocean, traversed in these ships, is a smooth highway--nothing but a
+ferry--and a week spent upon it has become perhaps the most enjoyable
+and the most healthful of holiday excursions, provided the prudent
+excursionist has left behind positive instructions that wireless
+telegrams shall not follow.
+
+[1] Perhaps there is no instance so striking as this of the immense
+difference that sometimes lies in the mere accent given one
+monosyllable. Until Mrs. Siddons revealed the real Lady Macbeth, every
+actress had replied, "We fail?" interrogatively, and then encouragingly,
+"Screw your courage to the sticking-point and we'll _not_ fail." Such
+the commonplace reciters. When genius touched the word it flashed and
+sparkled. Then came the prompt response. "_We_ fail." She was of such
+stuff as meets failure without fear. For this revelation the actress
+becomes immortal, since her name is linked with the greatest son of
+time. One word did it, nay a new accent upon a monosyllable--a trifling
+change say you? "I make it a rule never to mind trifles," said a great
+man. "So should I if I could only tell what were trifles," said a
+greater. One is far on if he can predict consequences that may flow from
+one kind word or the intonation of a word. Fortune sometimes hangs upon
+a glance or nod of kindly recognition as we pass.
+
+[2] An American Murdoch was found in Captain Jones, the best manager of
+works of his day. He entered the service of the Carnegie Steel Company
+as a young mechanic at two dollars per day, a perfect copy of Murdoch in
+many important respects. Reading Murdoch's history, we have found
+ourselves substituting the "captain," a title well earned on the field
+in the war for the Union, which he entered as a private. Once he was
+offered an interest in the firm, which would have made him one of the
+band of young millionaires. His reply was, "Thank you, don't want to
+have anything to do with business. These works (Steel rail mills,
+Pittsburg) give me enough to think of. You just give me a 'thundering
+salary.'" "All right, Captain, the salary of the president of the United
+States is yours." Also like Murdoch, he was an inventor. His principal
+invention, recently sustained by the Supreme Court, would easily yield
+from those who appropriated it and refused payment, at least five
+millions of dollars in royalties. Captain Jones was born in Pennsylvania
+of Welsh parents. Murdoch won promotion at last, and was first
+superintendent of one of the special departments, and later had general
+supervision of the mechanical department, becoming "the right hand man"
+of the firm. The young partners dealt generously with him, and treated
+him with reverence and affection to the end. He died in his eighty-fifth
+year. Captain Jones was injured at the works and passed away just as a
+touch of age came upon him, as many war veterans did. Fortunate is the
+firm that discovers a William Murdoch or a William Jones, and gives him
+swing to do the work of an original in his own way.
+
+[3] Since the above was put in type I learn that in his forthcoming book
+upon "The Development of the Locomotive," which promises to become the
+standard, Mr. Angus Sinclair says: "The first suggestion of a railroad
+for goods transportation appears to have been made before The Literary
+and Philosophical Society of Newcastle by a Mr Thomas, of Denton, in
+February, 1800. Two years later Richard Edgeworth, father of the famous
+novelist, suggested that it should be extended for the carrying of
+passengers." There is no record of Thomas's suggestion, as far as we
+know, but only tradition. Even if made, however, it seems to have lain
+dead. Edgeworth evidently knew nothing of it, and as it was his letter
+to Watt which seems first to have attracted public attention, the
+passage is allowed to stand as written.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SECOND PATENT
+
+
+The number and activity of rivals attracted to the steam engine and its
+possible improvement, some of whom had begun infringements upon the Watt
+patents, alarmed Messrs. Watt and Boulton so much that they decided Watt
+should apply for another patent, covering his important improvements
+since the first. Accordingly, October 25, 1781, the patent (already
+referred to on p. 91) was secured, "for certain new methods of producing
+a continued rotative motion around an axis or centre, and thereby to
+give motion to the wheels of mills or other machines."
+
+This patent was necessary in consequence of the difficulties experienced
+in working the steam wheels or rotatory engines described in the first
+patent of 1769, and by Watt's having been so unfairly anticipated, by
+Wasborough in the crank motion.
+
+No less than five different methods for rotatory motion are described in
+the patent, the fifth commonly known as the "sun and planet wheels," of
+which Watt writes to Boulton, January 3, 1782,
+
+    I have tried a model of one of my old plans of rotative engines,
+    revived and executed by Mr. Murdoch, which merits being
+    included in the specification as a fifth method; for which
+    purpose I shall send a drawing and description next post. It has
+    the singular property of going twice round for each stroke of
+    the engine, and may be made to go oftener round, if required,
+    without additional machinery.
+
+Then followed an explanation of the sketch which he sent, and two days
+later he wrote, "I send you the drawings of the fifth method, and
+thought to have sent you the description complete, but it was late last
+night before I finished so far, and to-day have a headache, therefore
+only send you a rough draft of part."
+
+In all of these Watt recommended that a fly-wheel be used to regulate
+the motion, but in the specification for the patent of the following
+year, 1782, his double-acting engine produced a more regular motion and
+rendered a fly-wheel unnecessary, "so that," he says, "in most of our
+great manufactories these engines now supply the place of water, wind
+and horse mills, and instead of carrying the work to the power, the
+prime agent is placed wherever it is most convenient to the
+manufacturer."
+
+This marks one of the most important stages in the development of the
+steam engine. It was at last the portable machine it remains to-day, and
+was placed wherever convenient, complete in itself and with the rotative
+motion adaptable for all manner of work. The ingenious substitutes Watt
+had to invent to avoid the obviously perfect crank motion have of course
+all been discarded, and nothing of these remains except as proofs,
+where none are needed, that genius has powers in reserve for
+emergencies; balked in one direction, it hews out another path for
+itself.
+
+While preparing the specification for this patent of 1781, Watt was busy
+upon another specification quite as important, which appeared in the
+following year, 1782. It embraced the following new improvements, the
+winnowing of numberless ideas and experiments that he had conceived and
+tested for some years previous:
+
+    1. The use of steam on the expansive principle; together with
+    various methods or contrivances (six in number, some of them
+    comprising various modifications), for equalising the expansive
+    power.
+
+    2. The double-acting engine; in which steam is admitted to press
+    the piston upward as well as downward; the piston being also
+    aided in its ascent as well as in its descent by a vacuum
+    produced by condensation on the other side.
+
+    3. The double-engine; consisting of two engines, primary and
+    secondary, of which the steam-vessels and condensers communicate
+    by pipes and valves, so that they can be worked either
+    independently or in concert; and make their strokes either
+    alternately or both together, as may be required.
+
+    4. The employment of a toothed rack and sector, instead of
+    chains, for guiding the piston-rod.
+
+    5. A rotative engine, or steam-wheel.
+
+Here we have three of the vital elements required toward the completion
+of the work: first, steam used expansively; second, the double-acting
+engine. It will be remembered that Watt's first engines only took in
+steam at the bottom of the cylinder, as Newcomen's did, but with this
+difference: Watt used the steam to perform work which Newcomen could not
+do, the latter only using steam to force the piston itself upward. Now
+came Watt's great step forward. Having a cylinder closed at the top,
+while the Newcomen cylinder remained open, it was as easy to admit steam
+at the top to press the piston down as to admit it at the bottom to
+press the piston up; also as easy to apply his condenser to the steam
+above as below, at the moment a vacuum was needed. All this was
+ingeniously provided for by numerous devices and covered by the patent.
+Third, he went one step farther to the compound engine, consisting of
+two engines, primary and secondary, working steam expansively
+independently or in concert, with strokes alternate or simultaneous. The
+compound engine was first thought of by Watt about 1767. He laid a large
+drawing of it on parchment before parliament when soliciting an
+extension of his first patent. The reason he did not proceed to
+construct it was "the difficulty he had encountered in teaching others
+the construction and use of the single engine, and in overcoming
+prejudices"; the patent of 1782 was only taken out because he found
+himself "beset with a host of plagiaries and pirates."
+
+One of the earliest of these double-acting engines was erected at the
+Albion Mills, London, in 1786. Watt writes:
+
+    The mention of Albion Mills induces me to say a few words
+    respecting an establishment so unjustly calumniated in its day,
+    and the premature destruction of which, by fire, in 1791, was,
+    not improbably, imputed to design. So far from being, as
+    misrepresented, a monopoly injurious to the public, it was the
+    means of considerably reducing the price of flour while it
+    continued at work.
+
+The "double-acting" engine was followed by the "compound" engine, of
+which Watt says:
+
+    A new compound engine, or method of connecting together the
+    cylinders and condensers of two or more distinct engines, so as
+    to make the steam which has been employed to press on the piston
+    of the first, act expansively upon the piston of the second,
+    etc., and thus derive an additional power to act either
+    alternately or co-jointly with that of the first cylinder.
+
+We have here, in all substantial respects, the modern engine of to-day.
+
+Two fine improvements have been made since Watt's time: first, the
+piston-rings of Cartwright, which effectively removed one of Watt's most
+serious difficulties, the escape of steam, even though the best packing
+he could devise were used--the chief reason he could not use
+high-pressure steam. In our day, the use of this is rapidly extending,
+as is that of superheated steam. Packing the piston was an elaborate
+operation even after Watt's day.
+
+It was not because Watt did not know as well as any of our present
+experts the advantages of high pressures, that he did not use them, but
+simply because of the mechanical difficulties then attending their
+adoption. He was always in advance of mechanical practicalities rather
+than behind, and as we have seen, had to retrace his steps, in the case
+of expansion.
+
+The other improvement is the cross-head of Haswell, an American, a
+decided advance, giving the piston rod a smooth and straight bed to rest
+upon and freeing it from all disturbance. The drop valve is now
+displacing the slide valve as a better form of excluding or admitting
+steam.
+
+Watt of course knew nothing of the thermo-dynamic value of high
+temperature without high pressure, altho fully conversant with the value
+of pressures. This had not been even imagined by either philosopher or
+engineer until discovered by Carnot as late as 1824. Even if he had
+known about it the mechanical arts in his day were in no condition to
+permit its use. Even high pressures were impracticable to any great
+extent. It is only during the past few years that turbines and
+superheating, having long been practically discarded, show encouraging
+signs of revival. They give great promise of advancement, the hitherto
+insuperable difficulties of lubrication and packing having been overcome
+within the last five years. Superheating especially promises to yield
+substantial results as compared with the practice with ordinary engines,
+but the margin of saving in steam over the best quadruple expansion
+engine cannot be great. Lord Kelvin however expects it to be the final
+contribution of science to the highest possible economy in the steam
+engine.
+
+In the January (1905) number of "Stevens Institute Indicator,"
+Professor Denton has an instructive résumé of recent steam engine
+economics. He tells us that Steam Turbines are now being applied to
+Piston Engines to operate with the latter's exhaust, to effect the same
+saving as the sulphur dioxide cylinder; and adds
+
+    that the Turbine is a formidable competitor to the Piston Engine
+    is mainly due to the fact that it more completely realizes the
+    expansive principle enunciated in the infancy of steam history
+    as the fundamental factor of economy by its sagacious founder,
+    the immortal Watt.
+
+Watt's favorite employment in Soho works late in 1783 and early in 1784
+was to teach his engine, now become as docile as it was powerful, to
+work a tilt hammer. In 1777 he had written Boulton that
+
+    Wilkinson wants an engine to raise a stamp of 15 cwt. thirty or
+    forty times in a minute. I have set Webb to work to try it with
+    the little engine and a stamp-hammer of 60 lbs. weight. Many of
+    these _battering rams_ will be wanted if they answer.
+
+The trial was successful. A new machine to work a 700 lbs. hammer for
+Wilkinson was made, and April 27, 1783, Watt writes that
+
+    it makes from 15 to 50, and even 60, strokes per minute, and
+    works a hammer, raised two feet high, which has struck 300 blows
+    per minute.
+
+The engine was to work two hammers, but was capable of working four of 7
+cwt. each. He says, with excusable pride,
+
+    I believe it is a thing never done before, to make a hammer of
+    that weight make 300 blows per minute; and, in fact, it is more
+    a matter to brag of than for any other use, as the rate wanted
+    is from 90 to 100 blows, being as quick as the workmen can
+    manage the iron under it.
+
+This most ingenious application of steam power was included in Watt's
+next patent of April 28, 1784. It embraced many improvements, mostly,
+however, now of little consequence, the most celebrated being "parallel
+motion," of which Watt was prouder than any other of his triumphs. He
+writes to his son, November, 1808, twenty-four years after it was
+invented (1784):
+
+    Though I am not over anxious after fame, yet I am more proud of
+    the parallel motion than of any other mechanical invention I
+    have ever made.
+
+He wrote Boulton, in June, 1784:
+
+    I have started a new hare. I have got a glimpse of a method of
+    causing a piston-rod to move up and down perpendicularly, by
+    only fixing it to a piece of iron upon the beam ... I think it
+    one of the most ingenious simple pieces of mechanism I have
+    contrived.
+
+October, 1784, he writes:
+
+    The new central perpendicular motion answers beyond expectation,
+    and does not make the shadow of a noise.
+
+He says:
+
+    When I saw it in movement, it afforded me all the pleasure of a
+    novelty, as if I had been examining the invention of another.
+
+When beam-engines were universally used for pumping, this parallel
+motion was of great advantage. It has been superseded in our day, by
+improved piston guides and cross-heads, the construction of which in
+Watt's day was impossible, but no invention has commanded in greater
+degree the admiration of all who comprehend the principles upon which it
+acts, or who have witnessed the smoothness, orderly power and "sweet
+simplicity" of its movements. Watt's pride in it as his favorite
+invention in these respects is fully justified.
+
+A detailed specification for a road steam-carriage concludes the claims
+of this patent, but the idea of railroads, instead of common roads,
+coming later left the construction of the locomotive to Stephenson.[1]
+
+Watt's last patent bears date June 14, 1785, and was
+
+    for certain newly improved methods of constructing furnaces or
+    fire-places for heating, boiling, or evaporating of water and
+    other liquids which are applicable to steam engines and other
+    purposes, and also for heating, melting, and smelting of metals
+    and their ores, whereby greater effects are produced from the
+    fuel, and the smoke is in a great measure prevented or consumed.
+
+The principle, "an old one of my own," as Watt says, is in great part
+acted upon to-day.
+
+So numerous were the improvements made by Watt at various periods, which
+greatly increased the utility of his engine, it would be in vain to
+attempt a detailed recital of his endless contrivances, but we may
+mention as highly important, the throttle-valve, the governor, the
+steam-gauge and the indicator. Muirhead says:
+
+    The throttle-valve is worked directly by the engineer to start
+    or stop the engine, and also to regulate the supply of steam.
+    Watt describes it as a circular plate of metal, having a spindle
+    fixed across its diameter, the plate being accurately fitted to
+    an aperture in a metal ring of some thickness, through the
+    edgeway of which the spindle is fitted steam-tight, and the ring
+    fixed between the two flanches of the joint of the steam-pipe
+    which is next to the cylinder. One end of the spindle, which has
+    a square upon it, comes through the ring, and has a spanner
+    fixed upon it, by which it can be turned in either direction.
+    When the valve is parallel to the outsides of the ring, it shuts
+    the opening nearly perfectly; but when its plane lies at an
+    angle to the ring, it admits more or less steam according to the
+    degree it has opened; consequently the piston is acted upon with
+    more or less force.
+
+Papin preferred gunpowder as a safer source of power than steam, but
+that was before it had been automatically regulated by the "Governor."
+The governor has always been the writer's favorite invention, probably
+because it was the first he fully understood. It is an application of
+the centrifugal principle adapted and mechanically improved. Two heavy
+revolving balls swing round an upright rod. The faster the rod revolves
+the farther from it the balls swing out. The slower it turns the closer
+the balls fall toward it. By proper attachments the valve openings
+admitting steam are widened or narrowed accordingly. Thus the higher
+speed of the engine, the less steam admitted, the slower the speed the
+more steam admitted. Hence any uniform speed desired can be maintained:
+should the engine be called upon to perform greater service at one
+moment than another, as in the case of steel rolling mills, speed being
+checked when the piece of steel enters the rolls, immediately the valves
+widen, more steam rushes into the engine, and _vice versa_. Until the
+governor came regular motion was impossible--steam was an unruly steed.
+
+Arago describes the steam-gauge thus:
+
+    It is a short glass tube with its lower end immersed in a
+    cistern of mercury, which is placed within an iron box screwed
+    to the boiler steam-pipe, or to some other part communicating
+    freely with the steam, which, pressing on the surface of the
+    mercury in the cistern, raises the mercury in the tube (which is
+    open to the air at the upper end), and its altitude serves to
+    show the elastic power of the steam over that of the atmosphere.
+
+The indicator he thus describes:
+
+    The barometer being adapted only to ascertain the degree of
+    exhaustion in the condenser where its variations were small, the
+    vibrations of the mercury rendered it very difficult, if not
+    impracticable, to ascertain the state of the exhaustion of the
+    cylinder at the different periods of the stroke of the engine;
+    it became therefore necessary to contrive an instrument for that
+    purpose that should be less subject to vibration, and should
+    show nearly the degree of exhaustion in the cylinder at all
+    periods. The following instrument, called the Indicator, is
+    found to answer the end sufficiently. A cylinder about an inch
+    diameter, and six inches long, exceedingly truly bored, has a
+    solid piston accurately fitted to it, so as to slide easy by the
+    help of some oil; the stem of the piston is guided in the
+    direction of the axis of the cylinder, so that it may not be
+    subject to jam, or cause friction in any part of its motion. The
+    bottom of this cylinder has a cock and small pipe joined to it
+    which, having a conical end, may be inserted in a hole drilled
+    in the cylinder of the engine near one of the ends, so that, by
+    opening the small cock, a communication may be effected between
+    the inside of the cylinder and the indicator.
+
+    The cylinder of the indicator is fastened upon a wooden or
+    metal frame, more than twice its own length; one end of a spiral
+    steel spring, like that of a spring steel-yard, is attached to
+    the upper part of the frame, and the other end of the spring is
+    attached to the upper end of the piston-rod of the indicator.
+    The spring is made of such a strength, that when the cylinder of
+    the indicator is perfectly exhausted, the pressure of the
+    atmosphere may force its piston down within an inch of its
+    bottom. An index being fixed to the top of its piston-rod, the
+    point where it stands, when quite exhausted, is marked from an
+    observation of a barometer communicating with the same exhausted
+    vessel, and the scale divided accordingly.
+
+Improvements come in many ways, sometimes after much thought and after
+many experimental failures. Sometimes they flash upon clever inventors,
+but let us remember this is only after they have spent long years
+studying the problem. In the case of the steam engine, however, a quite
+important improvement came very curiously. Humphrey Potter was a lad
+employed to turn off and on the stop cocks of a Newcomen engine, a
+monotonous task, for, at every stroke one had to be turned to let steam
+into the boiler and another for injecting the cold water to condense it,
+and this had to be done at the right instant or the engine could not
+move. How to relieve himself from the drudgery became the question. He
+wished time to play with the other boys whose merriment was often heard
+at no great distance, and this set him thinking. Humphrey saw that the
+beam in its movements might serve to open and shut these stop cocks and
+he promptly began to attach cords to the cocks and then tied them at the
+proper points to the beam, so that ascending it pulled one cord and
+descending the other. Thus came to us perhaps not the first automatic
+device, but no doubt the first of its kind that was ever seen there. The
+steam engine henceforth was self-attending, providing itself for its own
+supply of steam and for its condensation with perfect regularity. It had
+become in this feature automatic.
+
+The cords of Potter gave place to vertical rods with small pegs which
+pressed upward or downward as desired. These have long since been
+replaced by other devices, but all are only simple modifications of a
+contrivance devised by the mere lad whose duty it was to turn the stop
+cocks.
+
+It would be interesting to know the kind of man this precocious boy
+inventor became, or whether he received suitable reward for his
+important improvement. We search in vain; no mention of him is to be
+found. Let us, however, do our best to repair the neglect and record
+that, in the history of the steam engine, Humphrey Potter must ever be
+honorably associated with famous men as the only famous boy inventor.
+
+In the development of the steam engine, we have one purely accidental
+discovery. In the early Newcomen engines, the head of the piston was
+covered by a sheet of water to fill the spaces between the circular
+contour of the movable piston and the internal surface of the cylinder,
+for there were no cylinder-boring tools in those days, and surfaces of
+cylinders were most irregular. To the surprise of the engineer, the
+engine began one day working at greatly increased speed, when it was
+found that the piston-head had been pierced by accident and that the
+cold water had passed in small drops into the cylinder and had condensed
+the steam, thus rapidly making a more perfect vacuum. From this
+accidental discovery came the improved plan of injecting a shower of
+cold water through the cylinder, the strokes of the engine being thus
+greatly increased.
+
+The year 1783 was one of Watt's most fruitful years of the dozen which
+may be said to have teemed with his inventions. His celebrated discovery
+of the composition of water was published in this year. The attempts
+made to deprive him of the honor of making this discovery ended in
+complete failure. Sir Humphrey Davy, Henry, Arago, Liebig, and many
+others of the highest authority acknowledged and established Watt's
+claims.
+
+The true greatness of the modest Watt was never more finely revealed
+than in his correspondence and papers published during the controversy.
+Watt wrote Dr. Black, April 21st, that he had handed his paper to Dr.
+Priestley to be read at the Royal Society. It contained the new idea of
+water, hitherto considered an element and now discovered to be a
+compound. Thus was announced one of the most wonderful discoveries found
+in the history of science. It was justly termed the beginning of a new
+era, the dawn of a new day in physical chemistry, indeed the real
+foundation for the new system of chemistry, and, according to Dr.
+Young, "a discovery perhaps of greater importance than any single fact
+which human ingenuity has ascertained either before or since." What
+Newton had done for light Watt was held to have done for water.
+Muirfield well says:
+
+    It is interesting in a high degree to remark that for him who
+    had so fully subdued to the use of man the gigantic power of
+    steam it was also reserved to unfold its compound natural and
+    elemental principles, as if on this subject there were to be
+    nothing which his researches did not touch, nothing which they
+    touched that they did not adorn.
+
+Arago says:
+
+    In his memoir of the month of April, Priestley added an
+    important circumstance to those resulting from the experiments
+    of his predecessors: he proved that the weight of the water
+    which is deposited upon the sides of the vessel, at the instant
+    of the detonation of the oxygen and hydrogen, is precisely the
+    same as the weights of the two gases.
+
+Watt, to whom Priestley communicated this important result, immediately
+perceived that proof was here afforded that water was not a simple body.
+Writing to his illustrious friend, he asks:
+
+    What are the products of your experiment? They are _water_,
+    _light_ and _heat_. Are we not, thence, authorised to conclude
+    that water is a compound of the two gases, oxygen and hydrogen,
+    deprived of a portion of their latent or elementary heat; that
+    oxygen is water deprived of its hydrogen, but still united to
+    its latent heat and light? If light be only a modification of
+    heat, or a simple circumstance of its manifestation, or a
+    component part of hydrogen, oxygen gas will be water deprived of
+    its hydrogen, but combined with latent heat.
+
+This passage, so clear, so precise, and logical, is taken from a letter
+of Watt's, dated April 26, 1783. The letter was communicated by
+Priestley to several of the scientific men in London, and was
+transmitted immediately afterward to Sir Joseph Banks, the President of
+the Royal Society, to be read at one of the meetings of that learned
+body.
+
+Watt had for many years entertained the opinion that air was a
+modification of water. He writes Boulton, December 10, 1782:
+
+    You may remember that I have often said, that if water could be
+    heated red-hot or something more, it would probably be converted
+    into some kind of air, because steam would in that case have
+    lost all its latent heat, and that it would have been turned
+    solely into sensible heat, and probably a total change of the
+    nature of the fluid would ensue.
+
+A month after he hears of Priestley's experiments, he writes Dr. Black
+(April 21, 1783) that he "believes he has found out the cause of the
+conversion of water into air." A few days later, he writes to Dr.
+Priestley:
+
+    In the deflagration of the inflammable and dephlogisticated
+    airs, the airs unite with violence--become red-hot--and, on
+    cooling, totally disappear. The only fixed matter which remains
+    is _water_; and _water_, _light_, and _heat_, are all the
+    products. Are we not then authorised to conclude that water is
+    composed of dephlogisticated and inflammable air, or phlogiston,
+    deprived of part of their latent heat; and that
+    dephlogisticated, or pure air, is composed of water deprived of
+    its phlogiston, and united to heat and light; and if light be
+    only a modification of heat, or a component part of phlogiston,
+    then pure air consists of water deprived of its phlogiston and
+    of latent heat?
+
+It appears from the letter to Dr. Black of April 21st, that Mr. Watt
+had, on that day, written his letter to Dr. Priestley, to be read by him
+to the Royal Society, but on the 26th he informs Mr. DeLuc, that having
+observed some inaccuracies of style in that letter, he had removed them,
+and would send the Doctor a corrected copy in a day or two, which he
+accordingly did on the 28th; the corrected letter (the same that was
+afterward embodied verbatim in the letter to Mr. DeLuc, printed in the
+Philosophical Transactions), being dated April 26th. In enclosing it,
+Mr. Watt adds, "As to myself, the more I consider what I have said, I am
+the more satisfied with it, as I find none of the facts repugnant."
+
+Thus was announced for the first time one of the most wonderful
+discoveries recorded in the history of science, startling in its novelty
+and yet so simple.
+
+Watt had divined the import of Priestley's experiment, for he had
+mastered all knowledge bearing upon the question, but even when this was
+communicated to Priestley, he could not accept it, and, after making new
+experiments, he writes Watt, April 29, 1783, "Behold with surprise and
+indignation the figure of an apparatus that has utterly ruined your
+beautiful hypothesis," giving a rough sketch with his pen of the
+apparatus employed. Mark the promptitude of the master who had
+deciphered the message which the experimenter himself could not
+translate. He immediately writes in reply May 2, 1783:
+
+    I deny that your experiment ruins my hypothesis. It is not
+    founded on so brittle a basis as an earthen retort, nor on _its_
+    converting water into air. I founded it on the other facts, and
+    was obliged to stretch it a good deal before it would fit this
+    experiment.... I maintain my hypothesis until it shall be shown
+    that the water formed after the explosion of the pure and
+    inflammable airs, has some other origin.
+
+He also writes to Mr. DeLuc on May 18th:
+
+    I do not see Dr. Priestley's experiment in the same light that
+    he does. It does not disprove my theory.... My assertion was
+    simply, that air (_i.e._, dephlogisticated air, or oxygen,
+    which was also commonly called vital air, pure air, or simple
+    _air_) was water deprived of its phlogiston, and united to heat,
+    which I grounded on the decomposition of air by inflammation
+    with inflammable air, the residuum, or product of which, is only
+    water and heat.
+
+Having, by experiments of his own, fully satisfied himself of the
+correctness of his theory, in November he prepared a full statement for
+the Royal Society, having asked the society to withhold his first paper
+until he could prove it for himself by experiment. He never doubted its
+correctness, but some members of the society advised that it had better
+be supported by facts.
+
+When the discovery was so daring that Priestley, who made the
+experiments, could not believe it and had to be convinced by Watt of its
+correctness, there seems little room left for other claimants, nor for
+doubt as to whom is due the credit of the revelation.
+
+Watt encountered the difficulties of different weights and measures in
+his studies of foreign writers upon chemistry, a serious inconvenience
+which still remains with us.
+
+He wrote Mr. Kirwan, November, 1783:
+
+    I had a great deal of trouble in reducing the weights and
+    measures to speak the same language; and many of the German
+    experiments become still more difficult from their using
+    different weights and different divisions of them in different
+    parts of that empire. It is therefore a very desirable thing to
+    have these difficulties removed, and to get all philosophers to
+    use pounds divided in the same manner, and I flatter myself that
+    may be accomplished if you, Dr. Priestley, and a few of the
+    French experimenters will agree to it; for the utility is so
+    evident, that every thinking person must immediately be
+    convinced of it.
+
+Here follows his plan: Let the
+
+    Philosophical pound consist of 10 ounces, or 10,000 grains.
+              the ounce    "    "  10 drachms or 1,000    "
+              the drachm   "    "  100 grains.
+
+    Let all elastic fluids be measured by the ounce measure of
+    water, by which the valuation of different cubic inches will be
+    avoided, and the common decimal tables of specific gravities
+    will immediately give the weights of those elastic fluids.
+
+    If all philosophers cannot agree on one pound or one grain, let
+    every one take his own pound or his own grain; it will affect
+    nothing but doses of medicines, which must be corrected as is
+    now done; but as it would be much better that the identical
+    pound was used by all. I would propose that the Amsterdam or
+    Paris pound be assumed as the standard, being now the most
+    universal in Europe: it is to our avoirdupois pound as 109 is to
+    100. Our avoirdupois pound contains 7,000 of our grains, and the
+    Paris pound 7,630 of our grains, but it contains 9,376 Paris
+    grains, so that the division into 10,000 would very little
+    affect the Paris grain. I prefer dividing the pound afresh to
+    beginning with the Paris grain, because I believe the pound is
+    very general, but the grain local.
+
+    Dr. Priestley has agreed to this proposal, and has referred it
+    to you to fix upon the pound if you otherwise approve of it. I
+    shall be happy to have your opinion of it as soon as convenient,
+    and to concert with you the means of making it universal.... I
+    have some hopes that the foot may be fixed by the pendulum and a
+    measure of water, and a pound derived from that; but in the
+    interim let us at least assume a proper division, which from the
+    nature of it must be intelligible as long as decimal arithmetic
+    is used.
+
+He afterward wrote, in a letter to Magellan:
+
+    As to the precise foot or pound, I do not look upon it to be
+    very material, in chemistry at least. Either the common English
+    foot may be adopted according to your proposal, which has the
+    advantage that a cubic foot is exactly 1,000 ounces,
+    consequently the present foot and ounce would be retained; or a
+    pendulum which vibrates 100 times a minute may be adopted for
+    the standard, which would make the foot 14.2 of our present
+    inches, and the cubic foot would be very exactly a bushel, and
+    would weigh 101 of the present pounds, so that the present pound
+    would not be much altered. But I think that by this scheme the
+    foot would be too large, and that the inconvenience of changing
+    all the foot measures and things depending on them, would be
+    much greater than changing all the pounds, bushels, gallons,
+    etc. I therefore give the preference to those plans which retain
+    the foot and ounce.
+
+The war of the standards still rages--metric, or decimal, or no change.
+What each nation has is good enough for it in the opinion of many of its
+people. Some day an international commission will doubtless assemble to
+bring order out of chaos. As far as the English-speaking race is
+concerned, it seems that a decided improvement could readily be
+affected with very trifling, indeed scarcely perceptible, changes.
+Especially is this so with money values. Britain could merge her system
+with those of Canada and America, by simply making her "pound" the exact
+value of the American five dollars, it being now only ten pence less;
+her silver coinage one and two shillings equal to quarter- and
+half-dollars, the present coin to be recoined upon presentation, but
+meanwhile to pass current. Weights and measures are more difficult to
+assimilate. Science being world-wide, and knowing no divisions, should
+use uniform terms. Alas! at the distance of nearly a century and a half
+we seem no nearer the prospect of a system of universal weights and
+measures than in Watt's day, but Watt's idea is not to be lost sight of
+for all that. He was a seer who often saw what was to come.
+
+We have referred to the absence of holidays in Watt's strenuous life,
+but Birmingham was remarkable for a number of choice spirits who formed
+the celebrated Lunar Society, whose members were all devoted to the
+pursuit of knowledge and mutually agreeable to one another. Besides Watt
+and Boulton, there were Dr. Priestley, discoverer of oxygen gas, Dr.
+Darwin, Dr. Withering, Mr. Keir, Mr. Galton, Mr. Wedgwood of Wedgwood
+ware fame, who had monthly dinners at their respective houses--hence the
+"Lunar" Society. Dr. Priestley, discoverer of oxygen, who arrived in
+Birmingham in 1780, has repeatedly mentioned the great pleasure he had
+in having Watt for a neighbor. He says:
+
+    I consider my settlement at Birmingham as the happiest event in
+    my life; being highly favourable to every object I had in view,
+    philosophical or theological. In the former respect I had the
+    convenience of good workmen of every kind, and the society of
+    persons eminent for their knowledge of chemistry; particularly
+    Mr. Watt, Mr. Keir, and Dr. Withering. These, with Mr. Boulton
+    and Dr. Darwin, who soon left us by removing from Lichfield to
+    Derby, Mr. Galton, and afterwards Mr. Johnson of Kenilworth and
+    myself, dined together every month, calling ourselves _the Lunar
+    Society_, because the time of our meeting was near the
+    full-moon--in order,
+
+as he elsewhere says,
+
+    to have the benefit of its light in returning home.
+
+Richard Lovell Edgeworth says of this distinguished coterie:
+
+    By means of Mr. Keir, I became acquainted with Dr. Small of
+    Birmingham, a man esteemed by all who knew him, and by all who
+    were admitted to his friendship beloved with no common
+    enthusiasm. Dr. Small formed a link which combined Mr. Boulton,
+    Mr. Watt, Dr. Darwin, Mr. Wedgwood, Mr. Day, and myself
+    together--men of very different characters, but all devoted to
+    literature and science. This mutual intimacy has never been
+    broken but by death, nor have any of the number failed to
+    distinguish themselves in science or literature. Some may think
+    that I ought with due modesty to except myself. Mr. Keir, with
+    his knowledge of the world and good sense; Dr. Small, with his
+    benevolence and profound sagacity; Wedgwood, with his increasing
+    industry, experimental variety, and calm investigation; Boulton,
+    with his mobility, quick perception, and bold adventure; Watt,
+    with his strong inventive faculty, undeviating steadiness, and
+    bold resources; Darwin, with his imagination, science, and
+    poetical excellence; and Day with his unwearied research after
+    truth, his integrity and eloquence proved altogether such a
+    society as few men have had the good fortune to live with; such
+    an assemblage of friends, as fewer still have had the happiness
+    to possess, and keep through life.
+
+The society continued to exist until the beginning of the century, 1800.
+Watt was the last surviving member. The last reference is Dr.
+Priestley's dedication to it, in 1793, of one of his works "Experiments
+on the Generation of Air from Water," in which he says:
+
+    There are few things that I more regret, in consequence of my
+    removal from Birmingham, than the loss of your society. It both
+    encouraged and enlightened me; so that what I did there of a
+    philosophical kind ought in justice to be attributed almost as
+    much to you as to myself. From our cheerful meetings I never
+    absented myself voluntarily, and from my pleasing recollection
+    they will never be absent. Should the cause of our separation
+    make it necessary for to me remove to a still greater distance
+    from you, I shall only think the more, and with the more regret,
+    of our past interviews.... Philosophy engrossed us wholly.
+    Politicians may think there are no objects of any consequence
+    besides those which immediately interest _them_. But objects far
+    superior to any of which they have an idea engaged our
+    attention, and the discussion of them was accompanied with a
+    satisfaction to which they are strangers. Happy would it be for
+    the world if their pursuits were as tranquil, and their projects
+    as innocent, and as friendly to the best interests of mankind,
+    as ours.
+
+That the partners, Boulton and Watt, had such pleasure amid their lives
+of daily cares, all will be glad to know. It was not all humdrum
+money-making nor intense inventing. There was the society of gifted
+minds, the serene atmosphere of friendship in the high realms of mutual
+regard, best recreation of all.
+
+In 1786, quite a break in their daily routine took place. In that year
+Messrs. Boulton and Watt visited Paris to meet proposals for their
+erecting steam engines in France under an exclusive privilege. They were
+also to suggest improvements on the great hydraulic machine of Marly.
+Before starting, the sagacious and patriotic Watt wrote to Boulton:
+
+    I think if either of us go to France, we should first wait upon
+    Mr. Pitt (prime minister), and let him know our errand thither,
+    that the tongue of slander may be silenced, all undue suspicion
+    removed, and ourselves rendered more valuable in his eyes,
+    because others desire to have us!
+
+They had a flattering reception in Paris from the ministry, who seemed
+desirous that they should establish engine-works in France. This they
+absolutely refused to do, as being contrary to the interests of their
+country. It may be feared we are not quite so scrupulous in our day. On
+the other hand, refusal now would be fruitless, it has become so easy to
+obtain plans, and even experts, to build machines for any kind of
+product in any country. Automatic machinery has almost dispelled the
+need for so-called skilled labor. East Indians, Mexicans, Japanese,
+Chinese, all become more or less efficient workers with a few month's
+experience. Manufacturing is therefore to spread rapidly throughout the
+world. All nations may be trusted to develop, and if necessary for a
+time protect, their natural resources as a patriotic duty. Only when
+prolonged trials have been made can it be determined which nation can
+best and most cheaply provide the articles for which raw material
+abounds.
+
+The visit to Paris enabled Watt and Boulton to make the acquaintance of
+the most eminent men of science, with whom they exchanged ideas
+afterward in frequent and friendly correspondence. Watt described
+himself as being, upon one occasion, "drunk from morning to night with
+Burgundy and undeserved praise." The latter was always a disconcerting
+draught for our subject; anything but reference to his achievements for
+the modest self-effacing genius.
+
+While in Paris, Berthollet told Watt of his new method of bleaching by
+chlorine, and gave him permission to communicate it to his
+father-in-law, who adopted it in his business, together with several
+improvements of Watt's invention, the results of a long series of
+experiments. Watt, writing to Mr. Macgregor, April 27, 1787, says:
+
+    In relation to the inventor, he is a man of science, a member of
+    the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and a physician, not very
+    rich, a very modest and worthy man, and an excellent chemist. My
+    sole motives in meddling with it were to procure such reward as
+    I could to a man of merit who had made an extensively useful
+    discovery in the arts, and secondly, I had an immediate view to
+    your interest; as to myself, I had no lucrative views
+    whatsoever, it being a thing out of my way, which both my
+    business and my health prevented me from pursuing further than
+    it might serve for amusement when unfit for more serious
+    business. Lately, by a letter from the inventor, he informs me
+    that he gives up all intentions of pursuing it with lucrative
+    views, as he says he will not compromise his quiet and happiness
+    by engaging in business; in which, perhaps, he is right; but
+    if the discovery has real merit, as I apprehend, he is certainly
+    entitled to a generous reward, which I would wish for the honour
+    of Britain, to procure for him; but I much fear, in the way you
+    state it, that nothing could be got worth his acceptance.
+
+France has been distinguished for men of science who have thus refrained
+from profiting by their inventions. Pasteur, in our day, perhaps the
+most famous of all, the liver, not only of the simple but of the ideal
+life, laboring for the good of humanity--service to man--and taking for
+himself the simple life, free from luxury, palace, estate, and all the
+inevitable cares accompanying ostentatious living. Berthollet preceded
+him. Like Agassiz, these gifted souls were "too busy to make money."
+
+In 1792, when Boulton had passed the allotted three score years and ten,
+and Watt was over three score, they made a momentous decision which
+brought upon them several years of deep anxiety. Fortunately the sons of
+the veterans who had recently been admitted to the business proved of
+great service in managing the affair, and relieved their parents of much
+labor and many journeys. Fortunate indeed were Watt and Boulton in their
+partnership, for they became friends first and partners afterward. They
+were not less fortunate in each having a talented son, who also became
+friends and partners like their fathers before them. The decision was
+that the infringers of their patents were to be proceeded against.
+They had to appeal to the law to protect their rights.
+
+Watt met the apparently inevitable fate of inventors. Rivals arose in
+various quarters to dispute his right to rank as the originator of many
+improvements. No reflection need be made upon most rival claimants to
+inventions. Some wonderful result is conceived to be within the range of
+possibility, which, being obtained, will revolutionise existing modes. A
+score of inventive minds are studying the problem throughout the
+civilised world. Every day or two some new idea flashes upon one of them
+and vanishes, or is discarded after trial. One day the announcement
+comes of triumphant success with the very same idea slightly modified,
+the modification or addition, slight though this may be, making all the
+difference between failure and success. The man has arrived with the key
+that opens the door of the treasure-house. He sets the egg on end
+perhaps by as obvious a plan as chipping the end. There arises a chorus
+of strenuous claimants, each of whom had thought of that very device
+long ago. No doubt they did. They are honest in their protests and quite
+persuaded in their own minds that they, and not the Watt of the
+occasion, are entitled to the honor of original discovery. This very
+morning we read in the press a letter from the son of Morse, vindicating
+his father's right to rank as the father of the telegraph, a son of
+Vail, one of his collaborators, having claimed that his father, and
+not Morse, was the real inventor. The most august of all bodies of men,
+since its decisions overrule both Congress and President, the Supreme
+Court of the United States, has shown rare wisdom from its inception,
+and in no department more clearly than in that regarding the rights of
+inventors. No court has had such experience with patent claims, for no
+nation has a tithe of the number to deal with. Throughout its history,
+the court has attached more and more importance to two points: First, is
+the invention valuable? Second, who proved this in actual practice?
+These points largely govern its decisions.
+
+The law expenses of their suits seemed to Boulton and Watt exorbitant,
+even in that age of low prices compared to our own. One solicitors bill
+was for no less than $30,000, which caused Watt years afterward, when
+speaking of an enormous charge to say that "it would not have disgraced
+a London solicitor." When we find however, that this was for four years'
+services, the London solicitor appears in a different light. "In the
+whole affair," writes Watt to his friend Dr. Black, January 15, 1797,
+"nothing was so grateful to me as the zeal of our friends and the
+activity of our young men, which were unremitting."
+
+The first trial ended June 22, 1793, with a verdict for Watt and Boulton
+by the jury, subject to the opinion of the court as to the validity of
+the patent. On May 16, 1795, the case came on for judgment, when
+unfortunately the court was found divided, two for the patent and two
+against. Another case was tried December 16, 1796, with a special jury,
+before Lord Chief Justice Eyre; the verdict was again for the
+plaintiffs. Proceedings on a writ of error had the effect of affirming
+the result by the unanimous opinion of the four judges, before whom it
+was ably and fully argued on two occasions.
+
+The testimony of Professor Robison, Watt's intimate friend of youth in
+Glasgow, was understood to have been deeply impressive, and to have had
+a decisive effect upon judges and jury.
+
+All the claims of Watt were thus triumphantly sustained. The decision
+has always been considered of commanding importance to the law of
+patents in Britain, and was of vast consequence to the firm of Watt and
+Boulton pecuniarily. Heavy damages and costs were due from the actual
+defendants, and the large number of other infringers were also liable
+for damages. As was to have been expected, however, the firm remembered
+that to be merciful in the hour of victory and not to punish too hard a
+fallen foe, was a cardinal virtue. The settlements they made were
+considered most liberal and satisfactory to all. Watt used frequently
+long afterward to refer to his specifications as his old and well-tried
+friends. So indeed they proved, and many references to their wonderful
+efficiency were made.
+
+With the beginning of the new century, 1800, the original partnership of
+the famous firm of Boulton and Watt expired, after a term of twenty-five
+years, as did the patents of 1769 and 1775. The term of partnership had
+been fixed with reference to the duration of the patents. Young men in
+their prime, Watt at forty and Boulton about fifty when they joined
+hands, after a quarter-century of unceasing and anxious labor, were
+disposed to resign the cares and troubles of business to their sons. The
+partnership therefore was not renewed by them, but their respective
+shares in the firm were agreed upon as the basis of a new partnership
+between their sons, James Watt, Jr., Matthew Robinson Boulton and
+Gregory Watt, all distinguished for abilities of no mean order, and in a
+great degree already conversant with the business, which their wise
+fathers had seen fit for some years to entrust more and more to them.
+
+In nothing done by either of these two wise fathers is more wisdom shown
+than in their sagacious, farseeing policy in regard to their sons. As
+they themselves had been taught to concentrate their energies upon
+useful occupation, for which society would pay as for value received,
+they had doubtless often conferred, and concluded that was the happiest
+and best life for their sons, instead of allowing them to fritter away
+the precious years of youth in aimless frivolity, to be followed in
+later years by a disappointing and humiliating old age.
+
+So the partnership of Boulton and Watt was renewed in the union of the
+sons. Gregory Watt's premature death four years later was such a blow to
+his father that some think he never was quite himself again. Gregory had
+displayed brilliant talents in the higher pursuits of science and
+literature, in which he took delight, and great things had been
+predicted from him. With the other two sons the business connection
+continued without change for forty years, until, when old men, they also
+retired like their fathers. They proved to be great managers, for
+notwithstanding the cessation of the patents which opened
+engine-building free to all, the business of the firm increased and
+became much more profitable than it had ever been before; indeed toward
+the close of the original partnership, and upon the triumph gained in
+the patent suits, the enterprise became so profitable as fully to
+satisfy the moderate desire of Watt, and to provide a sure source of
+income for his sons. This met all his wishes and removed the fears of
+becoming dependent that had so long haunted him.
+
+The continued and increasing success of the Soho works was obviously
+owing to the new partners. They had some excellent assistants, but in
+the foremost place among all of them stands Murdoch, Watt's able,
+faithful and esteemed assistant for many years, who, both
+intellectually and in manly independence, was considered to exhibit no
+small resemblance to his revered master and friend. Never formally a
+partner in Soho (for he declined partnership as we have seen), he was
+placed on the footing of a partner by the sons in 1810, without risk,
+and received $5,000 per annum. From 1830 he lived in peaceful retirement
+and passed away in 1839. His remains were deposited in Handsworth Church
+near those of his friends and employers, Watt and Boulton (the one spot
+on earth he could have most desired). "A bust by Chantrey serves to
+perpetuate the remembrance of his manly and intelligent features, and of
+the mind of which these were a pleasing index." We may imagine the
+shades of Watt and Boulton, those friends so appropriately laid
+together, greeting their friend and employee: "Well done, thou good and
+faithful servant!" If ever there was one, Murdoch was the man, and
+Captain Jones his fellow.
+
+We have referred to Watt's suggestion of the screw-propeller, and of the
+sketch of it sent to Dr. Small, September 30, 1770. The only record of
+any earlier suggestion of steam is that of Jonathan Hulls, in 1736, and
+which he set forth in a pamphlet entitled "A Description and Draught of
+a Newly Invented Machine for carrying vessels or ships out of or into
+any Harbour, Port or River, against Wind or Tide or in a Calm"; London,
+1737. He described a large barge equipped with a Newcomen engine to be
+employed as a tug, fitted with fan (or paddle) wheels, towing a ship
+of war, but nothing further appears to have been done. Writing on this
+subject, Mr. Williamson says:
+
+    During his last visit to Greenock in 1816, Mr. Watt, in company
+    with his friend, Mr. Walkinshaw--whom the author some years
+    afterward heard relate the circumstance--made a voyage in a
+    steamboat as far as Rothsay and back to Greenock--an excursion,
+    which, in those days, occupied a greater portion of a whole day.
+    Mr. Watt entered into conversation with the engineer of the
+    boat, pointing out to him the method of "backing" the engine.
+    With a footrule he demonstrated to him what was meant. Not
+    succeeding, however, he at last, under the impulse of the ruling
+    passion, threw off his overcoat, and, putting his hand to the
+    engine himself, showed the practical application of his lecture.
+    Previously to this, the "back-stroke" of the steamboat engine
+    was either unknown, or not generally known. The practice was to
+    stop the engine entirely a considerable time before the vessel
+    reached the point of mooring, in order to allow for the gradual
+    and natural diminution of her speed.
+
+The naval review at Spithead, upon the close of the Crimean war in 1856,
+was the greatest up to that time. Ten vessels out of two hundred and
+fifty still had not steam power, but almost all the others were
+propelled by the screw--the spiral oar of Watt's letter of 1770--a
+red-letter day for the inventor.
+
+Watt's early interest in locomotive steam-carriages, dating from
+Robison's having thrown out the idea to him, was never lost. On August
+12, 1768, Dr. Small writes Watt, referring to the "peculiar improvements
+in them" the latter had made previous to that date. Seven months later
+he apprises Watt that "a patent for moving wheel-carriages by steam has
+been taken out by one Moore," adding "this comes of thy delays; do come
+to England with all possible speed." Watt replied "If linen-draper Moore
+does not use my engine to drive his chaises he can't drive them by
+steam." Here Watt hit the nail on the head; as with the steamship, so
+with the locomotive, his steam-engine was the indispensable power. In
+1786 he states that he has a carriage model of some size in hand "and am
+resolved to try if God will work a miracle in favor of these carriages."
+Watt's doubt was based on the fact that they would take twenty pounds of
+coal and two cubic feet of water per horse-power on the common roads.
+
+Another of Watt's recreations in his days of semi-retirement was the
+improvement of lamps. He wrote the famous inventor of the Argand burner
+fully upon the subject in August, 1787, and constructed some lamps which
+proved great successes.
+
+The following year he invented an instrument for determining the
+specific gravities of liquids, which was generally adopted.
+
+One of Watt's inventions was a new method of readily measuring distances
+by telescope, which he used in making his various surveys for canals.
+Such instruments are in general use to-day. Brough's treatise on
+"Mining" (10th ed., p. 228) gives a very complete account of them, and
+states that "the original instrument of this class is that invented by
+James Watt in 1771."
+
+In his leisure hours, Watt invented an ingenious machine for drawing in
+perspective, using the double parallel ruler, then very little known and
+not at all used as far as Watt knew. Watt reports having made from fifty
+to eighty of these machines, which went to various parts of the world.
+
+In 1810 Watt informs Berthollet that for several years he had felt
+unable, owing to the state of his health, to make chemical experiments.
+But idle he could not be; he must be at work upon something. As he often
+said, "without a hobby-horse, what is life?" So the saying is reported,
+but we may conclude that the "horse" is here an interpolation, for the
+difference between "a horse" and "a hobby" is radical--a man can get off
+a horse.
+
+Watt's next "hobby" fortunately became an engrossing occupation and kept
+him alert. This was a machine for copying sculpture. A machine he had
+seen in Paris for tracing and multiplying the dies of medals, suggested
+the other. After much labor and many experiments he did get some measure
+of success, and made a large head of Locke in yellow wood, and a small
+head of his friend Adam Smith.
+
+Long did Watt toil at the new hobby in the garret where it had been
+created, but the garret proved too hot in summer and too cold in
+winter. March 14, 1810, he writes Berthollet and Levèque:
+
+    I still do a little in mechanics: a part of which, if I live to
+    complete it, I shall have the honor of communicating to my
+    friends in France.
+
+He went steadily forward and succeeded in making some fine copies in
+1814. For one of Sappho he gives dates and the hours required for
+various parts, making a total of thirty-nine. Some censorious
+Sabbatarians discovered that the day he was employed one hour "doing her
+breast with 1/8th drill" was Sabbath, which in one who belonged to a
+strict Scottish Covenanter family, betokened a sad fall from grace. When
+we consider that his health was then precarious, that he was debarred
+from chemical experiments, and depended solely upon mechanical subjects;
+that in all probability it was a stormy day (Sunday, February 3, 1811),
+knowing also that "Satan finds mischief still for idle hands to do," we
+hope our readers will pardon him for yielding to the irresistible
+temptation, even if on the holy Sabbath day for once he could not "get
+off" his captivating hobby.
+
+The historical last workshop of the great worker with all its contents
+remains open to the public to-day just as it was when he passed away.
+Pilgrims from many lands visit it, as Shakespeare's birthplace, Burns'
+cottage, and Scott's Abbottsford attract their many thousands yearly. We
+recommend our readers to add to these this garret of Watt in their
+pilgrimages.
+
+[1] Sinclair's "Development of the Locomotive" tends to deprive
+Stephenson of some part of his fame as inventor. Much importance is
+attached to Hedley's "Puffing Billy," 1813, which is pronounced to have
+been a commercial success. Sinclair, however, credits Stephenson with
+doing most of all men to introduce the Locomotive. As the final verdict
+may admit Hedley and cannot expel Stephenson from the temple of fame, we
+pass the sentence as written, leaving to future disputants to adjust
+rival claims.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE RECORD OF THE STEAM ENGINE
+
+
+The Soho works, up to January, 1824, had completed 1164 steam engines,
+of a nominal horse-power of 25,945; from January, 1824, to 1854, 441
+engines, nominal horse-power, 25,278, making the total number 1605, of
+nominal horse-power, 51,223, and real horse-power, 167,319. Mulhall
+gives the total steam-power of the world as 50,150,000 horse-power in
+1888. In 1880 it was only 34,150,000. Thus in eight years it increased,
+say, fifty per cent. Assuming the same rate of increase from 1888 to
+1905, a similar period, it is to-day 75,000,000 nominal, which Engel
+says may be taken as one-half the effective power (vide Mulhall,
+"Steam," p. 546), the real horse-power in 1905 being 150,000,000. One
+horse-power raises ten tons a height of twelve inches per minute.
+Working eight hours, this is about 5,000 tons daily, or twelve times a
+man's work, and as the engine never tires, and can be run constantly, it
+follows that each horse-power it can exert equals thirty-six men's work;
+but, allowing for stoppages, let us say thirty men. The engines of a
+large ocean greyhound of 35,000 horse-power, running constantly from
+port to port, equal to three relays of twelve men per horse-power, is
+daily exerting the power of 1,260,000 men, or 105,000 horses. Assuming
+that all the steam engines in the world upon the average work double the
+hours of men, then the 150,000,000 horse-power in the world, each equal
+to two relays of twelve men per horse-power, exerts the power of
+3,600,000,000 of men. There are only one-tenth as many male adults in
+the world, estimating one in five of the population.
+
+If we assume that all steam engines work an average of only eight hours
+in the twenty-four, as men and horses do (those on duty longer hours are
+not under continuous exertion), it still follows that the 150,000,000 of
+effective steam-power, each doing the work of twelve men, equals the
+work of 1,800,000,000 of men, or of 150,000,000 of horses.
+
+Engel estimated that in 1880 the value of world industries dependent
+upon steam was thirty-two thousand millions of dollars, and that in 1888
+it had reached forty-three thousand millions of dollars. It is to-day
+doubtless more than sixty thousand millions of dollars, a great increase
+no doubt over 1880, but the one figure is as astounding as the other,
+for both mean nothing that can be grasped.
+
+The chief steam-using countries are America, 14,400,000 horse-power in
+1888; Britain, 9,200,000 horse-power nominal. If we add the British
+colonies and dependencies, 7,120,000 horse-power, the English-speaking
+race had three-fifths of all the steam-power of the world.
+
+In 1840 Britain had only 620,000 horse-power nominal; the United States
+760,000; the whole world had only 1,650,000 horse-power. To-day it has
+75,000,000 nominal. So rapidly has steam extended its sway over most of
+the earth in less than the span of a man's life. There has never been
+any development in the world's history comparable to this, nor can we
+imagine that such a rapid transformation can ever come in the future.
+What the future is finally to bring forth even imagination is unable to
+conceive. No bounds can be set to its forthcoming possible, even
+probable, wonders, but as such a revolution as steam has brought must
+come from a superior force capable of displacing steam, this would
+necessarily be a much longer task than steam had in occupying an
+entirely new field without a rival.
+
+The contrast between Newcomen and Watt is interesting. The Newcomen
+engine consumed twenty-eight pounds of coal per horse-power and made not
+exceeding three to four strokes per minute, the piston moving about
+fifty feet per minute. To-day, steam marine engines on one and one-third
+pounds of coal per horse-power--the monster ships using less--make
+from seventy to ninety revolutions per minute. "Destroyers" reach 400
+per minute. Small steam engines, it is stated, have attained 600
+revolutions per minute. The piston to-day is supposed to travel
+moderately when at 1,000 feet per minute, in a cylinder three feet long.
+This gives 166 revolutions per minute. With coal under the boilers
+costing one dollar per net ton, from say five pounds of coal for one
+cent there is one horse-power for three hours, or a day and a night of
+continuous running for eight cents.
+
+Countless millions of men and of horses would be useless for the work of
+the steam-engine, for the seemingly miraculous quality steam possesses,
+that permits concentration, is as requisite as its expansive powers. One
+hundred thousand horse-power, or several hundred thousand horse-power,
+is placed under one roof and directed to the task required. Sixty-four
+thousand horse-power is concentrated in the hold of the great steamships
+now building. All this stupendous force is evolved, concentrated and
+regulated by science from the most unpromising of substances, cold
+water. Nothing man has discovered or imagined is to be named with the
+steam engine. It has no fellow. Franklin capturing the lightning, Morse
+annihilating space with the telegraph, Bell transmitting speech through
+the air by the telephone, are not less mysterious--being more ethereal,
+perhaps in one sense they are even more so--still, the labor of the
+world performed by heating cold water places Watt and his steam engine
+in a class apart by itself. Many are the inventions for applying power;
+his creates the power it applies.
+
+Whether the steam engine has reached its climax, and gas, oil, or other
+agents are to be used extensively for power, in the near future, is a
+question now debated in scientific circles. Much progress has been made
+in using these substitutes, and more is probable, as one obstacle after
+another is overcome. Gas especially is coming forward, and oil is freely
+used. For reasons before stated, it seems to the writer that, where coal
+is plentiful, the day is distant when steam will not continue to be the
+principal source of power. It will be a world surpriser that beats one
+horse-power developed by one pound of coal. The power to do much more
+than this, however, lies theoretically in gas, but there come these wise
+words of Arago to mind: "Persons whose whole lives have been devoted to
+speculative labours are not aware how great the distance is between a
+scheme, apparently the best concerted, and its realisation." So true!
+Watt's ideas in the brain, and the steam engine that he had to evolve
+during nine long years, are somewhat akin to the great gulf between
+resolve and performance, the "good resolution" that soothes and the
+"act" that exalts.
+
+The steam engine is Scotland's chief, tho not her only contribution to
+the material progress of the world. Watt was its inventor, we might
+almost write Creator, so multiform were the successive steps. Symington
+by the steamship stretched one arm of it over the water; Stephenson by
+the locomotive stretched the other over the land. Thus was the world
+brought under its sway and conditions of human life transformed. Watt
+and Symington were born in Scotland within a few miles of each other.
+Stephenson's forbears moved from Scotland south of the line previous to
+his birth, as Fulton's parents removed from Scotland to America, so that
+both Stephenson and Fulton could boast with Gladstone that the blood in
+their veins was Scotch.
+
+The history of the world has no parallel to the change effected by the
+inventions of these three men. Strange that little Scotland, with only
+1,500,000 people, in 1791, about one-half the population of New York
+City, should have been the mother of such a triad, and that her second
+"mighty three" (Wallace, Bruce and Burns always first), should have been
+of the same generation, working upon the earth near each other at the
+same time. The Watt engine appeared in 1782; the steamship in 1801; the
+locomotive thirteen years later, in 1814. Thus thirty-two years after
+its appearance Watt's steam-engine had conquered both sea and land.
+
+The sociologist may theorise, but plain people will remember that men do
+not gather grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles. There must be
+something in the soil which produces such men; something in the poverty
+that compels exertion; something in the "land of the mountain and the
+flood" that stirs the imagination; something in the history of centuries
+of struggle for national and spiritual independence; much in the
+system of compulsory and universal free education; something of all
+these elements mingling in the blood that tells, and enables Scotland to
+contribute so largely to the progress of the world.
+
+Strange reticence is shown by all Watt's historians regarding his
+religious and political views. Williamson, the earliest author of his
+memoirs, is full of interesting facts obtained from people in Greenock
+who had known Watt well. The hesitation shown by him as to Watt's
+orthodoxy in his otherwise highly eulogistic tribute, attracts
+attention. He says:
+
+    We could desire to know more of the state of those affections
+    which are more purely spiritual by their nature and origin--his
+    disposition to those supreme truths of Revelation, which alone
+    really elevate and purify the soul. In the absence of much
+    information of a very positive kind in regard to such points of
+    character and life, we instinctively revert in a case like this
+    to the principles and maxims of an infantile and early training.
+    Remembering the piety portrayed in the ancestors of this great
+    man, one cannot but cling to the hope that his many virtues
+    reposed on a substratum of more than merely moral excellence.
+    Let us cherish the hope that the calm which rested on the spirit
+    of the pilgrim ... was one that caught its radiance from a far
+    higher sphere than that of the purest human philosophy.
+
+Watt's breaking of the Sabbath before recorded must have seemed to that
+stern Calvinist a heinous sin, justifying grave doubts of Watt's
+spiritual condition, his "moral excellence" to the contrary
+notwithstanding. Williamson's estimate of moral excellence had recently
+been described by Burns:
+
+    But then, nae thanks to him for a' that,
+    Nae godly symptom ye can ca' that,
+    It's naething but a milder feature
+    Of our poor sinfu' corrupt nature.
+    Ye'll get the best o' moral works,
+    Many black gentoos and pagan works,
+    Or hunters wild on Ponotaxi
+    Wha never heard of orthodoxy.
+
+Williamson's doubts had much stronger foundation in Watt's
+non-attendance at church, for, as we shall see from his letter to DeLuc,
+July, 1788, he had never attended the "meeting-house" (dissenting
+church) in Birmingham altho he claimed to be still a member of the
+Presbyterian body in declining the sheriffalty.
+
+It seems probable that Watt, in his theological views, like Priestley
+and others of the Lunar Society, was in advance of his age, and more or
+less in accord with Burns, who was then astonishing his countrymen.
+Perhaps he had forstalled Dean Stanley's advice in his rectorial address
+to the students of St. Andrew's University: "go to Burns for your
+theology," yet he remained a deeply religious man to the end, as we see
+from his letter (page 216), at the age of seventy-six.
+
+We know that politically Watt was in advance of his times for the prime
+minister pronounced him "a sad radical." He was with Burns politically
+at all events. Watt's eldest son, then in Paris, was carried away by the
+French Revolution, and Muirhead suggests that the prime minister must
+have confounded father and son, but it seems unreasonable to suppose
+that he could have been so misled as to mistake the doings of the famous
+Watt in Birmingham for those of his impulsive son in France.
+
+The French Revolution exerted a powerful influence in Britain,
+especially in the north of England and south of Scotland, which have
+much in common. The Lunar Society of Birmingham was intensely
+interested. At one of the meetings in the summer of 1788, held at her
+father's house, Mrs. Schimmelpenniack records that Mr. Boulton presented
+to the company his son, just returned from a long sojourn in Paris, who
+gave a vivid account of proceedings there, Watt and Dr. Priestly being
+present. A few months later the revolution broke out. Young Harry
+Priestley, a son of the Doctor's, one evening burst into the
+drawing-room, waving his hat and crying, "Hurrah! Liberty, Reason,
+Brotherly Love forever! Down with kingcraft and priestcraft! The majesty
+of the people forever! France is free!" Dr. Priestley was deeply stirred
+and became the most prominent of all in the cause of the rights of man.
+He hailed the acts of the National Assembly abolishing monarchy,
+nobility and church. He was often engaged in discussions with the local
+clergy on theological dogmas. He wrote a pamphlet upon the French
+Revolution, and Burke attacked him in the House of Commons. All this
+naturally concentrated local opposition upon him as leader. The
+enthusiasts mistakenly determined to have a public dinner to celebrate
+the anniversary of the Revolution, and no less than eighty gentlemen
+attended, altho many advised against it. Priestley himself was not
+present. A mob collected outside and demolished the windows. The cry was
+raised, "To the new meeting-house!" the chapel in which Priestley
+ministered. The chapel was set on fire. Thence the riot proceeded to
+Priestley's house. The doctor and his family, being warned, had left
+shortly before. The house was at the mercy of the mob, which broke in,
+destroyed furniture, chemical laboratory and library, and finally set
+fire to the house. Some of the very best citizens suffered in like
+manner. Mr. Ryland, one of the most munificent benefactors of the town,
+Mr. Taylor, the banker, and Hutton, the estimable book-seller, were
+among the number. The home of Dr. Withering, member of the Lunar
+Society, was entered, but the timely arrival of troops saved it from
+destruction. The members of the Lunar Society, or the "lunatics," as
+they were popularly called, were especially marked for attack. The mob
+cried, "No philosophers!" "Church and King forever!" All this put
+Boulton and Watt upon their guard, for they were prominent members of
+the society. They called their workmen together, explained the
+criminally of the rioters, and placed arms in their hands on their
+promise to defend them if attacked. Meanwhile everything portable was
+packed up ready to be removed.
+
+Watt wrote to Mr. DeLuc, July 19, 1791:
+
+    Though our principles, which are well known, as friends to the
+    established government and enemies of republican principles,
+    should have been our protection from a mob whose watchword was
+    Church and King, yet our safety was principally owing to most of
+    the Dissenters living south of the town; for after the first
+    moment they did not seem over-nice in their discrimination of
+    religion and principles. I, among others, was pointed out as a
+    Presbyterian, though I never was in a meeting-house (Dissenting
+    Church) in Birmingham, and Mr. Boulton is well-known as a
+    Churchman. We had everything most portable packed up, fearing
+    the worst. However, all is well with us.
+
+From all this we gather the impression that Radical principles had
+permeated the leading minds of Birmingham to a considerable extent,
+probably around the Lunar Society district in greater measure than in
+other quarters, altho clubs of ardent supporters were formed in London
+and the principal provincial cities.
+
+In the political field, we have only one appearance of Watt reported.
+Early in 1784, we find him taking the lead in getting up a loyal address
+to the king on the appointment as prime minister of Pitt, who proposed
+to tax coal, iron, copper and other raw materials of manufacture to the
+amount of $5,000,000 per year, a considerable sum in those days when
+manufacturing was in its infancy. Boulton also joined in opposition.
+They wisely held that for a manufacturing nation "to tax raw materials
+was suicidal: let taxes be laid upon luxuries, upon vices, and, if you
+like, upon property; tax riches when got, but not the means of getting
+them. Of all things don't cut open the hen that lays the golden eggs."
+
+Watt's services were enlisted and he drew up a paper for circulation
+upon the subject. The policy failed, and soon after Pitt was converted
+to sounder doctrines by Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." Free trade has
+ruled Britain ever since, and, being the country that could manufacture
+cheapest, and indeed, the only manufacturing country for many years,
+this policy has made her the richest, per capita, of all nations. The
+day may be not far distant when America, soon to be the cheapest
+manufacturing country for many, as it already is for a few, staple
+articles, will be crying for free trade, and urging free entrance to the
+markets of the world. To tax the luxuries and vices, to tax wealth got
+and not in the making, as proposed by Watt and Boulton, is the policy to
+follow. Watt shows himself to have been a profound economist.
+
+Watt had cause for deep anxiety for his eldest son, James, who had taken
+an active part in the agitation. He and his friend, Mr. Cooper of
+Manchester, were appointed deputies by the "Constitutional Society," to
+proceed to Paris and present an address of congratulation to the Jacobin
+Club. Young Watt was carried away, and became intimate with the leaders.
+Southey says he actually prevented a duel between Danton and Robespierre
+by appearing on the ground and remonstrating with them, pointing out
+that if either fell the cause must suffer.
+
+Upon young Watt's return, king's messengers arrived in Birmingham and
+seized persons concerned in seditious correspondence. Watt suggests that
+Boulton should see his son and arrange for his leaving for America, or
+some foreign land, for a time. This proved to be unnecessary; his son
+was not arrested, and in a short time all was forgotten. He entered the
+works with Boulton's son as partner, and became an admirable manager.
+To-day we regard his mild republicanism, his alliance with Jacobin
+leaders, and especially his bold intervention in the quarrel between two
+of the principal actors in the tragedy of the French Revolution, as "a
+ribbon in the cap of youth." That his douce father did the same and was
+proud of his eldest born seems probable. Our readers will also judge for
+themselves whether the proud father had not himself a strong liking for
+democratic principles, "the rights of the people," "the royalty of man,"
+which Burns was then blazing forth, and held such sentiments as quite
+justified the prime minister's accusation that he was "a sad radical."
+
+In Britain, since Watt's day, all traces of opposition to monarchy
+aroused by the French Revolution have disappeared, as completely as the
+monarchy of King George. The "limited monarchy" of to-day, developed
+during the admirable reign of Queen Victoria, has taken its place. The
+French abolished monarchy by a frontal attack upon the citadel,
+involving serious loss. Not such the policy of the colder Briton. He won
+his great victory, losing nothing, by flanking the position. That the
+king "could do no wrong," is a doctrine almost coeval with modern
+history, flowing from the "divine right" of kings, and, as such, was
+quietly accepted. It needed only to be properly harnessed to become a
+very serviceable agent for registering the people's will.
+
+It was obvious that the acceptance of the doctrine that the king could
+do no wrong involved the duty of proving the truth of the axiom, and it
+was equally obvious that the only possible way of doing this was that
+the king should not be allowed to do anything. Hence he was made the
+mouthpiece of his ministers, and it is not the king, but they, who,
+being fallible men, may occasionally err. The monarch, in losing power
+to do anything has gained power to influence everything. The ministers
+hold office through the approval of the House of Commons. Members of
+that house are elected by the people. Thus stands government in Britain
+"broad-based upon the people's will."
+
+All that the revolutionists of Watt's day desired has, in substance,
+been obtained, and Britain has become in truth a "crowned republic,"
+with "government of the people, for the people, and by the people." This
+steady and beneficent development was peaceably attained. The
+difference between the French and British methods is that between
+revolution and evolution.
+
+In America's political domain, a similar evolution has been even more
+silently at work than in Britain during the past century, and is not yet
+exhausted--the transformation of a loose confederacy of sovereign
+states, with different laws, into one solid government, which assumes
+control and insures uniformity over one department after another. The
+centripetal forces grow stronger with the years; power leaves the
+individual states and drifts to Washington, as the necessity for each
+successive change becomes apparent. In the regulation of interstate
+commerce, of trusts, and in other fields, final authority over the whole
+land gravitates more and more to Washington. It is a beneficent
+movement, likely to result in uniform national laws upon many subjects
+in which present diversity creates confusion. Marriage and divorce laws,
+bankruptcy laws, corporation charter privileges, and many other
+important questions may be expected to become uniform under this
+evolutionary process. The Supreme Court decision that the Union was an
+indissoluble union of indissoluble states, carries with it finally
+uniform regulation of many interstate problems, in every respect
+salutary, and indispensable for the perfect union of the American
+people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WATT IN OLD AGE
+
+
+Watt gracefully glided into old age. This is the great test of success
+in life. To every stage a laurel, but to happy old age the crown. It was
+different with his friend Boulton, who continued to frequent the works
+and busy himself in affairs much as before, altho approaching his
+eightieth year. Watt could still occupy himself in his garret, where his
+"mind to him a Kingdom was," upon the scientific pursuits which charmed
+him. He revisited Paris in 1802 and renewed acquaintances with his old
+friends, with whom he spent five weeks. He frequently treated himself to
+tours throughout England, Scotland and Wales. In the latter country, he
+purchased a property which attracted him by its beauties, and which he
+greatly improved. It became at a later date, under his son, quite an
+extensive estate, much diversified, and not lacking altogether the stern
+grandeur of his native Scotland. He planted trees and took intense
+delight in his garden, being very fond of flowers. The farmhouse gave
+him a comfortable home upon his visits. The fine woods which now richly
+clothe the valley and agreeably diversify the river and mountain
+scenery were chiefly planted under his superintendence, many by his own
+hand. In short, the blood in his veins, the lessons of his childhood
+that made him a "child of the mist," happy in roaming among the hills,
+reasserted their power in old age as the Celtic element powerfully does.
+He turned more and more to nature.
+
+    "That never yet betrayed the heart that loved her--"
+
+We see him strolling through his woods, and imagine him crooning to
+himself from that marvellous memory that forgot no gem:
+
+                    For I have learned
+    To look on nature, not as in the hour
+    Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
+    The still, sad music of humanity,
+    Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power
+    To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
+    A presence that disturbs me with the joy
+    Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
+    Of something far more deeply interfused,
+    Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
+    And the round ocean and the living air,
+    And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
+    A motion and a spirit, that impels
+    All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
+    And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
+    A lover of the meadows and the woods,
+    And mountains; and of all that we behold
+    From this green earth.
+
+Twice Watt was requested to undertake the honor of the shrievalty; in
+1803 that of Staffordshire, and in 1816 that of Radnorshire, both of
+which were positively declined.
+
+He finally found it necessary to declare that he was not a member of the
+Church of England, but of the Presbyterian church of Scotland, a reason
+which in that day was conclusive.
+
+In 1816, he was in his eighty-first year, and no difficulty seems then
+to have been found for excusing him, for it seems the assumption of the
+duties was compulsory. It was "the voice of age resistless in its
+feebleness."
+
+The day had come when Watt awakened to one of the saddest of all truths,
+that his friends were one by one rapidly passing away, the circle ever
+narrowing, the few whose places never could be filled becoming fewer, he
+in the centre left more and more alone. Nothing grieved Watt so much as
+this. In 1794 his partner, Roebuck, fell; in 1799, his inseparable
+friend, and supporter in his hour of need, Dr. Black, and also Withering
+of the Lunar Society; and in 1802 Darwin "of the silver song," one of
+his earliest English friends. In 1804, his brilliant son Gregory died, a
+terrible shock. In 1805, his first Glasgow College intimate, Robison;
+Dr. Beddoes in 1808; Boulton, his partner, in 1809; Dr. Wilson in 1811;
+DeLuc in 1817. Many other friends of less distinction fell in these
+years who were not less dear to him. He says, "by one friend's
+withdrawing after another," he felt himself "in danger of standing alone
+among strangers, the son of later times."
+
+He writes to Boulton on November 23, 1802:
+
+    We cannot help feeling, with deep regret, the circle of our old
+    friends gradually diminishing, while our ability to increase it
+    by new ones is equally diminished; but perhaps it is a wise
+    dispensation of Providence so to diminish our enjoyments in this
+    world, that when our turn comes we may leave it without regret.
+
+He writes to another correspondent, July 12, 1810:
+
+    I, in particular, have reason to thank God that he has preserved
+    me so well as I am, to so late a period, while the greater part
+    of my contemporaries, healthier and younger men, have passed
+    "the bourne from which no traveller returns." It is, however, a
+    painful contemplation to see so many who were dear to us pass
+    away before us; and our consolation should be, that as
+    Providence has been pleased to prolong our life, we should
+    render ourselves as useful to society as we can while we live.
+
+And again, when seventy-six years of age, January, 1812, he writes:
+
+    On these subjects I can offer no other consolations than what
+    are derived from religion: they have only gone before us a
+    little while, in that path we all must tread, and we should be
+    thankful they were spared so long to their friends and the
+    world.
+
+Sir Walter Scott declares:
+
+    That is the worst part of life when its earlier path is trod. If
+    my limbs get stiff, my walks are made shorter, and my rides
+    slower; if my eyes fail me, I can use glasses and a large print:
+    if I get a little deaf, I comfort myself that except in a few
+    instances I shall be no great loser by missing one full half of
+    what is spoken: _but I feel the loneliness of age when my
+    companions and friends are taken from me._
+
+All his life until retiring from business, Watt's care was to obtain
+sufficient for the support of himself and family upon the most modest
+scale. He had no surplus to devote to ends beyond self, but as soon as
+he retired with a small competence it was different, and we accordingly
+find him promptly beginning to apply some portion of his still small
+revenue to philanthropical ends. Naturally, his thoughts reverted first
+to his native town and the university to which he owed so much.
+
+In 1808 he founded the Watt Prize in Glasgow University, saying:
+
+    Entertaining a due sense of the many favours conferred upon me
+    by the University of Glasgow, I wish to leave them some memorial
+    of my gratitude, and, at the same time, to excite a spirit of
+    inquiry and exertion among the students of Natural Philosophy
+    and Chemistry attending the College; which appears to me the
+    more useful, as the very existence of Britain, as a nation,
+    seems to me, in great measure, to depend upon her exertions in
+    science and in the arts.
+
+The University conferred the degree of LL.D. upon him in 1774, and its
+great engineering laboratory bears his name.
+
+In 1816, he made a donation to the town of Greenock for scientific
+books, stating it to be his intention
+
+    to form the beginning of a scientific library for the
+    instruction of the youth of Greenock, in the hope of prompting
+    others to add to it, and of rendering his townsmen as eminent
+    for their knowledge as they are for the spirit of enterprise.
+
+This has grown to be a library containing 15,000 volumes, and is a
+valuable adjunct of the Watt Institution, founded by his son in memory
+of his father, which is to-day the educational centre of Greenock. Its
+entrance is adorned by a remarkably fine statue of Watt, funds for
+which were raised by public subscription.
+
+Many societies honored the great inventor. He was a fellow of the Royal
+Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of London, Member of the
+Batavian Society, correspondent of the French Academy of Sciences, and
+was one of the eight Foreign Associates of the French Academy of
+Sciences.
+
+Watt's almost morbid dislike for publicity leaves many well-known acts
+of kindness and charity hidden from all save the recipients. Muirhead
+assures us that such gifts as we can well believe were not wanting.
+Watt's character as a kindly neighbor always stood high. He was one of
+those "who will not receive a reward for that for which God accounts
+Himself a debtor--persons that dare trust God with their charity, and
+without a witness."
+
+In the autumn of 1819 an illness of no great apparent severity caused
+some little anxiety to Watt's family, and was soon recognised by himself
+as the messenger sent to apprise him of his end. This summons he met
+with the calm and tranquil mind, that, looking backward, could have
+found little of serious nature to repent, and looking forward, found
+nothing to fear. "He often expressed his gratitude to the Giver of All
+Good who had so signally prospered the work of his hands and blessed him
+with length of days and riches and honour." On August 19, 1819, aged 83,
+in his own home at Heathfield, he tranquilly breathed his last, deeply
+mourned by all who were privileged to know him. In the parish
+churchyard, alongside of Boulton, he was most appropriately laid to
+rest. Thus the two strong men, lifelong friends and partners, who had
+never had a serious difference, "lovely and pleasant in their lives, in
+their death were not divided."
+
+It may be doubted whether there be on record so charming a business
+connection as that of Boulton and Watt; in their own increasingly close
+union for twenty-five years, and, at its expiration, in the renewal of
+that union in their sons under the same title; in their sons' close
+union as friends without friction as in the first generation; in the
+wonderful progress of the world resulting from their works; in their
+lying down side by side in death upon the bosom of Mother Earth in the
+quiet churchyard, as they had stood side by side in the battle of life;
+and in the faithful servant Murdoch joining them at the last, as he had
+joined them in his prime. In the sweet and precious influences which
+emanate from all this, may we not gratefully make acknowledgment that in
+contemplation thereof we are lifted into a higher atmosphere, refreshed,
+encouraged, and bettered by the true story of men like ourselves, whom
+if we can never hope to equal, we may at least try in part to imitate.
+
+A meeting was called in London to take steps for a monument to Watt to
+be placed in Westminster Abbey. The prime minister presided and
+announced a subscription of five hundred pounds sterling from His
+Majesty. It may truly be said that
+
+    A meeting more distinguished by rank, station and talent, was
+    never before assembled to do honour to genius, and to modest and
+    retiring worth; and a more spontaneous, noble, and
+    discriminating testimony was never borne to the virtues,
+    talents, and public services of any individual, in any age or
+    country.
+
+The result was the colossal statue by Chantrey which bears the following
+inscription, pronounced to be beyond comparison "the finest lapidary
+inscription in the English language." It is from the pen of Lord
+Brougham:
+
+      NOT TO PERPETUATE A NAME
+    WHICH MUST ENDURE WHILE THE PEACEFUL ARTS FLOURISH
+      BUT TO SHEW
+    THAT MANKIND HAVE LEARNT TO HONOUR THOSE
+      WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE
+    THE KING
+      HIS MINISTERS, AND MANY OF THE NOBLES
+    AND COMMONERS OF THE REALM
+      RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO
+    JAMES WATT
+      WHO DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL GENIUS
+    EARLY EXERCISED IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH
+      TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF
+    THE STEAM-ENGINE
+      ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OF HIS COUNTRY
+    INCREASED THE POWER OF MAN
+      AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE
+    AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF SCIENCE
+      AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD
+    BORN AT GREENOCK MDCCXXXVI
+      DIED AT HEATHFIELD IN STAFFORDSHIRE MDCCCXIX
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+WATT, THE INVENTOR AND DISCOVERER
+
+
+In the foregoing pages an effort has been made to follow and describe
+Watt's work in detail as it was performed, but we believe our readers
+will thank us for presenting the opinions of a few of the highest
+scientific and legal authorities upon what Watt really did. Lord
+Brougham has this to say of Watt:
+
+    One of the most astonishing circumstances in this truly great
+    man was the versatility of his talents. His accomplishments were
+    so various, the powers of his mind were so vast, and yet of such
+    universal application, that it was hard to say whether we should
+    most admire the extraordinary grasp of his understanding, or the
+    accuracy of nice research with which he could bring it to bear
+    upon the most minute objects of investigation. I forget of whom
+    it was said, that his mind resembled the trunk of an elephant,
+    which can pick up straws and tear up trees by the roots. Mr.
+    Watt in some sort resembled the greatest and most celebrated of
+    his own inventions; of which we are at a loss whether most to
+    wonder at the power of grappling with the mightiest objects, or
+    of handling the most minute; so that while nothing seems too
+    large for its grasp, nothing seems too small for the delicacy of
+    its touch; which can cleave rocks and pour forth rivers from the
+    bowels of the earth, and with perfect exactness, though not with
+    greater ease, fashion the head of a pin, or strike the impress
+    of some curious die. Now those who knew Mr. Watt, had to
+    contemplate a man whose genius could create such an engine, and
+    indulge in the most abstruse speculations of philosophy, and
+    could at once pass from the most sublime researches of geology
+    and physical astronomy, the formation of our globe, and the
+    structure of the universe, to the manufacture of a needle or a
+    nail; who could discuss in the same conversation, and with equal
+    accuracy, if not with the same consummate skill, the most
+    forbidding details of art, and the elegances of classical
+    literature; the most abstruse branches of science, and the
+    niceties of verbal criticism.
+
+    There was one quality in Mr. Watt which most honorably
+    distinguished him from too many inventors, and was worthy of all
+    imitation; he was not only entirely free from jealousy, but he
+    exercised a careful and scrupulous self-denial, and was anxious
+    not to appear, even by accident, as appropriating to himself
+    that which he thought belonged in part to others. I have heard
+    him refuse the honor universally ascribed to him, of being
+    inventor of the steam-engine, and call himself simply its
+    improver; though, in my mind, to doubt his right to that honor
+    would be as inaccurate as to question Sir Isaac Newton's claim
+    to his greatest discoveries, because Descartes in mathematics,
+    and Galileo in astronomy and mechanics, had preceded him; or to
+    deny the merits of his illustrious successor, because galvanism
+    was not his discovery, though before his time it had remained as
+    useless to science as the instrument called a steam-engine was
+    to the arts before Mr. Watt. The only jealousy I have known him
+    betray was with respect to others, in the nice adjustment he was
+    fond of giving to the claims of inventors. Justly prizing
+    scientific discovery above all other possessions, he deemed the
+    title to it so sacred, that you might hear him arguing by the
+    hour to settle disputed rights; and if you ever perceived his
+    temper ruffled, it was when one man's invention was claimed by,
+    or given to, another; or when a clumsy adulation pressed upon
+    himself that which he knew to be not his own.
+
+Sir Humphrey Davy says:
+
+    I consider it as a duty incumbent on me to endeavor to set forth
+    his peculiar and exalted merits, which live in the recollection
+    of his contemporaries and will transmit his name with immortal
+    glory to posterity. Those who consider James Watt only as a
+    great practical mechanic form a very erroneous idea of his
+    character; he was equally distinguished as a natural philosopher
+    and a chemist, and his inventions demonstrate his profound
+    knowledge of those sciences, and that peculiar characteristic of
+    genius, the union of them for practical application. The steam
+    engine before his time was a rude machine, the result of simple
+    experiments on the compression of the atmosphere, and the
+    condensation of steam. Mr. Watt's improvements were not produced
+    by accidental circumstances or by a single ingenious thought;
+    they were founded on delicate and refined experiments, connected
+    with the discoveries of Dr. Black. He had to investigate the
+    cause of the cold produced by evaporation, of the heat
+    occasioned by the condensation of steam--to determine the source
+    of the air appearing when water was acted upon by an exhausting
+    power; the ratio of the volume of steam to its generating water,
+    and the law by which the elasticity of steam increased with the
+    temperature; labor, time, numerous and difficult experiments,
+    were required for the ultimate result; and when his principle
+    was obtained, the application of it to produce the movement of
+    machinery demanded a new species of intellectual and
+    experimental labor.
+
+    The Archimedes of the ancient world by his mechanical inventions
+    arrested the course of the Romans, and stayed for a time the
+    downfall of his country. How much more has our modern Archimedes
+    done? He has permanently elevated the strength and wealth of his
+    great empire: and, during the last long war, his inventions; and
+    their application were amongst the great means which enabled
+    Britain to display power and resources so infinitely above what
+    might have been expected from the numerical strength of her
+    population. Archimedes valued principally abstract science;
+    James Watt, on the contrary, brought every principle to some
+    practical use; and, as it were, made science descend from heaven
+    to earth. The great inventions of the Syracusan died with
+    him--those of our philosopher live, and their utility and
+    importance are daily more felt; they are among the grand results
+    which place civilised above savage man--which secure the triumph
+    of intellect, and exalt genius and moral force over mere brutal
+    strength, courage and numbers.
+
+Sir James Mackintosh says:
+
+    It may be presumptuous in me to add anything in my own words to
+    such just and exalted praise. Let me rather borrow the language
+    in which the great father of modern philosophy, Lord Bacon
+    himself, has spoken of inventors in the arts of life. In a
+    beautiful, though not very generally read fragment of his,
+    called the New Atlantis, a voyage to an imaginary island, he has
+    imagined a university, or rather royal society, under the name
+    of Solomon's House, or the College of the Six Days' Works; and
+    among the various buildings appropriated to this institution, he
+    describes a gallery destined to contain the statues of
+    inventors. He does not disdain to place in it not only the
+    inventor of one of the greatest instruments of science, but the
+    discoverer of the use of the silkworm, and of other still more
+    humble contrivances for the comfort of man. What place would
+    Lord Bacon have assigned in such a gallery to the statue of Mr.
+    Watt? Is it too much to say, that, considering the magnitude of
+    the discoveries, the genius and science necessary to make them,
+    and the benefits arising from them to the world, that statue
+    must have been placed at the head of those of all inventors in
+    all ages and nations. In another part of his writings the same
+    great man illustrates the dignity of useful inventions by one of
+    those happy allusions to the beautiful mythology of the
+    ancients, which he often employs to illuminate as well as to
+    decorate reason. "The dignity," says he, "of this end of
+    endowment of man's life with new commodity appeareth, by the
+    estimation that antiquity made of such as guided thereunto; for
+    whereas founders of states, lawgivers, extirpators of tyrants,
+    fathers of the people, were honored but with the titles of
+    demigods, inventors were ever consecrated amongst the gods
+    themselves."
+
+The Earl of Aberdeen says:
+
+    It would ill become me to attempt to add to the eulogy which you
+    have already heard on the distinguished individual whose genius
+    and talents we have met this day to acknowledge. That eulogy has
+    been pronounced by those whose praises are well calculated to
+    confer honor, even upon him whose name does honor to his
+    country. I feel in common with them, although I can but ill
+    express that intense admiration which the bare recollection of
+    those discoveries must excite, which have rendered us familiar
+    with a power before nearly unknown, and which have taught us to
+    wield, almost at will, perhaps the mightiest instrument ever
+    intrusted to the hands of man. I feel, too, that in erecting a
+    monument to his memory, placed, as it may be, among the
+    memorials of kings, and heroes, and statesmen, and philosophers,
+    that it will be then in its proper place; and most in its proper
+    place, if in the midst of those who have been most distinguished
+    by their usefulness to mankind, and by the spotless integrity of
+    their lives.
+
+Lord Jeffrey says:
+
+    This name fortunately needs no commemoration of ours; for he
+    that bore it survived to see it crowned with undisputed and
+    unenvied honors; and many generations will probably pass away,
+    before it shall have gathered "all its fame." We have said that
+    Mr. Watt was the great _improver_ of the steam engine; but, in
+    truth, as to all that is admirable in its structure, or vast in
+    its utility, he should rather be described as its _inventor_. It
+    was by his inventions that its action was so regulated, as to
+    make it capable of being applied to the finest and most delicate
+    manufactures, and its power so increased, as to set weight and
+    solidity at defiance. By his admirable contrivance, it has
+    become a thing stupendous alike for its force and its
+    flexibility, for the prodigious power which it can exert, and
+    the ease, and precision, and ductility, with which it can be
+    varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant, that
+    can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It can
+    engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal before it;
+    draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and
+    lift a ship of war like a bauble in the air. It can embroider
+    muslin and forge anchors, cut steel into ribbons, and impel
+    loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves.
+
+    It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits
+    which these inventions have conferred upon this country. There
+    is no branch of industry that has not been indebted to them;
+    and, in all the most material, they have not only widened most
+    magnificently the field of its exertions, but multiplied a
+    thousandfold the amount of its productions. It is our improved
+    steam engine that has fought the battles of Europe, and exalted
+    and sustained, through the late tremendous contest, the
+    political greatness of our land. It is the same great power
+    which now enables us to pay the interest of our debt, and to
+    maintain the arduous struggle in which we are still engaged
+    (1819), with the skill and capital of countries less oppressed
+    with taxation. But these are poor and narrow views of its
+    importance. It has increased indefinitely the mass of human
+    comforts and enjoyments, and rendered cheap and accessible, all
+    over the world, the materials of wealth and prosperity. It has
+    armed the feeble hand of man, in short, with a power to which no
+    limits can be assigned; completed the dominion of mind over the
+    most refractory qualities of matter; and laid a sure foundation
+    for all those future miracles of mechanical power which are to
+    aid and reward the labors of after generations. It is to the
+    genius of one man, too, that all this is mainly owing; and
+    certainly no man ever bestowed such a gift on his kind. The
+    blessing is not only universal, but unbounded; and the fabled
+    inventors of the plough and the loom, who were deified by the
+    erring gratitude of their rude contemporaries, conferred less
+    important benefits on mankind than the inventor of our present
+    steam engine.
+
+    This will be the fame of Watt with future generations; and it is
+    sufficient for his race and his country. But to those to whom he
+    more immediately belonged, who lived in his society and enjoyed
+    his conversation, it is not, perhaps, the character in which he
+    will be most frequently recalled--most deeply lamented--or even
+    most highly admired.
+
+We shall end by quoting the greatest living authority, Lord Kelvin, now
+Lord Chancellor of Glasgow University, which Watt and he have done so
+much to render famous:
+
+    Precisely that single-acting, high-pressure, syringe-engine,
+    made and experimented on by James Watt one hundred and forty
+    years ago in his Glasgow College workshop, now in 1901, with the
+    addition of a surface-condenser cooled by air to receive the
+    waste steam, and a pump to return the water thence to the
+    boiler, constitutes the common-road motor, which, in the opinion
+    of many good judges, is the most successful of all the different
+    motors which have been made and tried within the last few years.
+    Without a condenser, Watt's high-pressure, single-acting engine
+    of 1761, only needs the cylinder-cover with piston-rod passing
+    steam-tight through it (as introduced by Watt himself in
+    subsequent developments), and the valves proper for admitting
+    steam on both sides of the piston and for working expansively,
+    to make it the very engine, which, during the whole of the past
+    century, has done practically all the steam work of the world,
+    and is doing it still, except on the sea or lakes or rivers,
+    where there is plenty of condensing water. Even the double and
+    triple and quadruple expansion engines, by which the highest
+    modern economy for power and steam engines has been obtained,
+    are splendid mechanical developments of the principle of
+    expansion, discovered and published by Watt, and used, though to
+    a comparatively limited extent, in his own engines.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Thus during the five years from 1761-66 Watt had worked out all
+    the principles and invented all that was essential in the
+    details for realising them in the most perfect steam engines of
+    the present day.
+
+So passes Watt from view as the discoverer and inventor of the "most
+powerful instrument in the hands of man to alter the face of the
+physical world." He takes his place "at the head of all inventors of all
+ages and all nations."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+WATT, THE MAN
+
+
+Of Watt, the genius, possessed of abilities far beyond those of other
+men, a scientist and philosopher, a mechanician and a craftsman, one who
+gravitated without effort to the top of every society, and who, even
+when a young workman, made his workshop the meeting-place of the leaders
+of Glasgow University for the interchange of views upon the highest and
+most abstruse subjects--with all this we have already dealt, but it is
+only part, and not the nobler part. He excelled all his fellows in
+knowledge, but there is much beyond mere knowledge in man. Strip Watt of
+all those commanding talents that brought him primacy without effort,
+for no man ever avoided precedence more persistently than he, and the
+question still remains: what manner of man was he, as man? Surely our
+readers would esteem the task but half done that revealed only what was
+unusual in Watt's head. What of his heart? is naturally asked. We hasten
+to record that in the domain of the personal graces and virtues, we have
+evidence of his excellence as copious and assured as for his
+pre-eminence in invention and discovery.
+
+We cite the testimony of those who knew him best. It is seldom that a
+great man is so fortunate in his eulogists. The picture drawn of him by
+his friend, Lord Jeffrey, must rank as one of the finest ever produced,
+as portrait and tribute combined. That it is a discriminating statement,
+altho so eulogistic, may well be accepted, since numerous contributory
+proofs are given by others of Watt's personal characteristics. Says Lord
+Jeffrey:
+
+    Independently of his great attainments in mechanics, Mr. Watt
+    was an extraordinary, and in many respects a wonderful man.
+    Perhaps no individual in his age possessed so much and such
+    varied and exact information--had read so much, or remembered
+    what he had read so accurately and well. He had infinite
+    quickness of apprehension, a prodigious memory, and a certain
+    rectifying and methodising power of understanding, which
+    extracted something precious out of all that was presented to
+    it. His stores of miscellaneous knowledge were immense, and yet
+    less astonishing than the command he had at all times over them.
+    It seemed as if every subject that was casually started in
+    conversation with him, had been that which he had been last
+    occupied in studying and exhausting; such was the copiousness,
+    the precision, and the admirable clearness of the information
+    which he poured out upon it without effort or hesitation. Nor
+    was this promptitude and compass of knowledge confined in any
+    degree to the studies connected with his ordinary pursuits. That
+    he should have been minutely and extensively skilled in
+    chemistry and the arts, and in most of the branches of physical
+    science, might perhaps have been conjectured; but it could not
+    have been inferred from his usual occupations, and probably is
+    not generally known, that he was curiously learned in many
+    branches of antiquity, metaphysics, medicine, and etymology, and
+    perfectly at home in all the details of architecture, music and
+    law. He was well acquainted, too, with most of the modern
+    languages, and familiar with their most recent literature. Nor
+    was it at all extraordinary to hear the great mechanician and
+    engineer detailing and expounding, for hours together, the
+    metaphysical theories of the German logicians, or criticising
+    the measures or the matter of the German poetry.
+
+    His astonishing memory was aided, no doubt, in a great measure,
+    by a still higher and rarer faculty--by his power of digesting
+    and arranging in its proper place all the information he
+    received, and of casting aside and rejecting, as it were
+    instinctively, whatever was worthless or immaterial. Every
+    conception that was suggested to his mind seemed instantly to
+    take its place among its other rich furniture, and to be
+    condensed into the smallest and most convenient form. He never
+    appeared, therefore, to be at all encumbered or perplexed with
+    the _verbiage_ of the dull books he perused, or the idle talk to
+    which he listened; but to have at once extracted, by a kind of
+    intellectual alchemy, all that was worthy of attention, and to
+    have reduced it, for his own use, to its true value and to its
+    simplest form. And thus it often happened that a great deal more
+    was learned from his brief and vigorous account of the theories
+    and arguments of tedious writers, than an ordinary student could
+    ever have derived from the most painful study of the originals,
+    and that errors and absurdities became manifest from the mere
+    clearness and plainness of his statement of them, which might
+    have deluded and perplexed most of his hearers without that
+    invaluable assistance.
+
+    It is needless to say, that, with those vast resources, his
+    conversation was at all times rich and instructive in no
+    ordinary degree; but it was, if possible, still more pleasing
+    than wise, and had all the charms of familiarity, with all the
+    substantial treasures of knowledge. No man could be more social
+    in his spirit, less assuming or fastidious in his manners, or
+    more kind and indulgent toward all who approached him. He rather
+    liked to talk, at least in his latter years, but though he took
+    a considerable share of the conversation, he rarely suggested
+    the topics on which it was to turn, but readily and quietly took
+    up whatever was presented by those around him, and astonished
+    the idle and barren propounders of an ordinary theme, by the
+    treasures which he drew from the mine they had inconsciously
+    opened. He generally seemed, indeed, to have no choice or
+    predilection for one subject of discourse rather than another;
+    but allowed his mind, like a great cyclopædia, to be opened at
+    any letter his associates might choose to turn up, and only
+    endeavour to select, from his inexhaustible stores, what might
+    be best adapted to the taste of his present hearers. As to their
+    capacity he gave himself no trouble; and, indeed, such was his
+    singular talent for making all things plain, clear, and
+    intelligible, that scarcely any one could be aware of such a
+    deficiency in his presence. His talk, too, though overflowing
+    with information, had no resemblance to lecturing or solemn
+    discoursing, but, on the contrary, was full of colloquial spirit
+    and pleasantry. He had a certain quiet and grave humour, which
+    ran through most of his conversation, and a vein of temperate
+    jocularity, which gave infinite zest and effect to the condensed
+    and inexhaustible information which formed its main staple and
+    characteristic. There was a little air of affected testiness,
+    and a tone of pretended rebuke and contradiction, with which he
+    used to address his younger friends, that was always felt by
+    them as an endearing mark of his kindness and familiarity, and
+    prized accordingly, far beyond all the solemn compliments that
+    ever proceeded from the lips of authority. His voice was deep
+    and powerful, although he commonly spoke in a low and somewhat
+    monotonous tone, which harmonised admirably with the weight and
+    brevity of his observations, and set off to the greatest
+    advantage the pleasant anecdotes, which he delivered with the
+    same grave brow, and the same calm smile playing soberly on his
+    lips. There was nothing of effort indeed, or impatience, any
+    more than pride or levity, in his demeanour; and there was a
+    finer expression of reposing strength, and mild self-possession
+    in his manner, than we ever recollect to have met with in any
+    other person. He had in his character the utmost abhorrence for
+    all sorts of forwardness, parade and pretensions; and, indeed,
+    never failed to put all such impostures out of countenance, by
+    the manly plainness and honest intrepidity of his language and
+    deportment.
+
+    In his temper and dispositions he was not only kind and
+    affectionate, but generous, and considerate of the feelings of
+    all around him; and gave the most liberal assistance and
+    encouragement to all young persons who showed any indications of
+    talent, or applied to him for patronage or advice. His health,
+    which was delicate from his youth upwards, seemed to become
+    firmer as he advanced in years; and he preserved, up almost to
+    the last moment of his existence, not only the full command of
+    his extraordinary intellect, but all the alacrity of spirit, and
+    the social gaiety, which had illumined his happiest days. His
+    friends in this part of the country never saw him more full of
+    intellectual vigour and colloquial animation, never more
+    delightful or more instructive, than in his last visit to
+    Scotland in the autumn of 1817. Indeed, it was after that time
+    that he applied himself, with all the ardour of early life, to
+    the invention of a machine for mechanically copying all sorts of
+    sculpture and statuary; and distributed among his friends some
+    of its earliest performances, as the productions of a young
+    artist just entering on his eighty-third year.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    All men of learning and science were his cordial friends; and
+    such was the influence of his mild character and perfect
+    fairness and liberality, even upon the pretenders to these
+    accomplishments, that he lived to disarm even envy itself, and
+    died, we verily believe, without a single enemy.
+
+Professor Robison, the most intimate friend of his youth, records that:
+
+    When to the superiority of knowledge in his own line, which
+    every man confessed, there was joined the naïve simplicity and
+    candour of his character, it is no wonder that the attachment of
+    his acquaintances was so strong. I have seen something of the
+    world and I am obliged to say that I never saw such another
+    instance of general and cordial attachment to a person whom all
+    acknowledged to be their superior. But this superiority was
+    concealed under the most amiable candour, and liberal allowance
+    of merit to every man. Mr. Watt was the first to ascribe to the
+    ingenuity of a friend things which were very often nothing but
+    his own surmises followed out and embodied by another. I am well
+    entitled to say this, and have often experienced it in my own
+    case.
+
+    This potent commander of the elements, this abridger of time and
+    space, this magician, whose cloudy machinery has produced a
+    change in the world, the effects of which, extraordinary as
+    they are, are perhaps only now beginning to be felt--was not
+    only the most profound man of science, the most successful
+    combiner of powers, and combiner of numbers, as adapted to
+    practical purposes--was not only one of the most generally
+    well-informed, but one of the best and kindest of human beings.
+    There he stood, surrounded by the little band of northern
+    _literati_, men not less tenacious, generally speaking, of their
+    own opinions, than the national regiments are supposed to be
+    jealous of the high character they have won upon service.
+    Methinks I yet see and hear what I shall never see or hear
+    again. The alert, kind, benevolent old man had his attention
+    alive to every one's question, his information at every one's
+    command. His talents and fancy overflowed on every subject. One
+    gentleman was a deep philologist, he talked with him on the
+    origin of the alphabet as if he had been coeval with Cadmus;
+    another, a celebrated critic, you would have said the old man
+    had studied political economy and _belles lettres_ all his life;
+    of science it is unnecessary to speak, it was his own
+    distinguished walk.
+
+Lord Brougham says:
+
+    We have been considering this eminent person as yet only in his
+    public capacity, as a benefactor of mankind by his fertile
+    genius and indomitable perseverance; and the best portraiture of
+    his intellectual character was to be found in the description of
+    his attainments. It is, however, proper to survey him also in
+    private life. He was unexceptionable in all its relations; and
+    as his activity was unmeasured, and his taste anything rather
+    than fastidious, he both was master of every variety of
+    knowledge, and was tolerant of discussion on subjects of very
+    subordinate importance compared with those on which he most
+    excelled. Not only all the sciences from the mathematics and
+    astronomy, down to botany, received his diligent attention, but
+    he was tolerably read in the lighter kinds of literature,
+    delighting in poetry and other works of fiction, full of the
+    stores of ancient literature, and readily giving himself up to
+    the critical disquisitions of commentators, and to discussion on
+    the fancies of etymology. His manners were most attractive from
+    their perfect nature and simplicity. His conversation was rich
+    in the measure which such stores and such easy taste might lead
+    us to expect, and it astonished all listeners with its admirable
+    precision, with the extraordinary memory it displayed, with the
+    distinctness it seemed to have, as if his mind had separate
+    niches for keeping each particular, and with its complete
+    rejection of all worthless and superfluous matter, as if the
+    same mind had some fine machine for acting like a fan, casting
+    off the chaff and the husk. But it had besides a peculiar charm
+    from the pleasure he took in conveying information where he was
+    peculiarly able to give it, and in joining with entire candor
+    whatever discussion happened to arise. Even upon matters on
+    which he was entitled to pronounce with absolute authority, he
+    never laid down the law, but spoke like any other partaker of
+    the conversation. I had the happiness of knowing Mr. Watt for
+    many years, in the intercourse of private life; and I will take
+    upon me to bear a testimony, in which all who had that
+    gratification I am sure will join, that they who only knew his
+    public merit, prodigious as that was, knew but half his worth.
+    Those who were admitted to his society will readily allow that
+    anything more pure, more candid, more simple, more scrupulously
+    loving of justice, than the whole habits of his life and
+    conversation proved him to be, was never known in society.
+
+The descriptions given by Lords Brougham, Jeffrey, the genial Sir
+Walter, and others, of Watt's universality of knowledge and his charm in
+discourse recall Canterbury's exordium:
+
+    Hear him but reason in divinity
+    And, all-admiring, with an inward wish consumed,
+    You would desire the king were made a prelate;
+    Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
+    You would say--it hath been all in all his study:
+    List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
+    A fearful battle rendered you in music.
+    Turn him to any cause of policy,
+    The Gordian knot of it he will unloose
+    Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,
+    The air, a chartered libertine, is still,
+    And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears
+    To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences.
+
+If Watt fell somewhat short of this, so no doubt did the king so greatly
+extolled, and much more so, probably, than the versatile Watt.
+
+Dr. Black, the discoverer of latent heat, upon his death-bed, hears that
+the Watt patent has been sustained, and is for the time restored again
+to interest in life. He whispers that he "could not help rejoicing at
+anything that benefited Jamie Watt."
+
+The Earl of Liverpool, prime minister, stated that Watt was remarkable
+for
+
+    the simplicity of his character, the modesty of his nature, the
+    absence of anything like presumption and ostentation, the
+    unwillingness to obtrude himself, not only upon the great and
+    powerful, but even on those of the scientific world to which he
+    belonged. A more excellent and amiable man in all the relations
+    of life I believe never existed.
+
+There can be no question that we have for our example, in the man Watt,
+a nature cast in the finest mold, seemingly composed of every creature's
+best. Transcendent as were his abilities as inventor and discoverer, we
+are persuaded that our readers will feel that his qualities as a man in
+all the relations of life were not less so, nor less worthy of record.
+His supreme abilities we can neither acquire nor emulate. These are
+individual and ended with him. But his virtues and charms as our
+fellow-man still shine steadily upon our paths and will shine upon those
+of our successors for ages to come, we trust not without leading us and
+them to tread some part of the way toward the acquisition of such
+qualities as enabled the friend of James Watt to declare his belief that
+"a more excellent and amiable man in all the relations of life never
+existed." A nobler tribute was never paid by man to man, yet was it not
+undeserved.
+
+So passes Jamie Watt, the man, from view--a man who attracted,
+delighted, impressed, instructed and made lifelong friends of his
+fellows, to a degree unsurpassed, perhaps unequalled.
+
+      "His life was gentle, and the elements
+      So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
+    And say to all the world, 'This was a man.'"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of James Watt, by Andrew Carnegie
+
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of James Watt, by Andrew Carnegie
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: James Watt
+
+Author: Andrew Carnegie
+
+Release Date: July 26, 2008 [EBook #26131]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES WATT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by V. L. Simpson and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="titlepage">
+<h1>JAMES WATT</h1>
+
+<div class="byline">
+By<br />
+<span class="fs125em">Andrew Carnegie</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="center small">
+Author of "The Empire of Business,"<br />
+"Gospel of Wealth," "Triumphant Democracy,"<br />
+"American Four-in-Hand in Britain,"<br />
+"Round the World," Etc.
+</div>
+
+<div class="publisher small center">
+New York<br />
+Doubleday, Page &amp; Company<br />
+1905
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="verso center small">
+
+<div>
+Copyright, 1905, by<br />
+Doubleday, Page &amp; Company<br />
+Published, May, 1905
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<i>All rights reserved, including that of<br />
+translation&mdash;also right of translation<br />
+into the Scandinavian languages.</i>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+<p>When the publishers asked me to write the Life of Watt, I declined,
+stating that my thoughts were upon other matters. This settled the
+question, as I supposed, but in this I was mistaken. Why shouldn't I
+write the Life of the maker of the steam-engine, out of which I had made
+fortune? Besides, I knew little of the history of the Steam Engine and
+of Watt himself, and the surest way to obtain knowledge was to comply
+with the publisher's highly complimentary request. In short, the subject
+would not down, and finally, I was compelled to write again, telling
+them that the idea haunted me, and if they still desired me to undertake
+it, I should do so with my heart in the task.</p>
+
+<p>I now know about the steam-engine, and have also had revealed to me one
+of the finest characters that ever graced the earth. For all this I am
+deeply grateful to the publishers.</p>
+
+<p>I am indebted to friends, Messrs. Angus Sinclair and Edward R. Cooper,
+for editing my notes upon Scientific and Mechanical points.</p>
+
+<p>The result is this volume. If the public, in reading, have one tithe of
+the pleasure I have had in writing it, I shall be amply rewarded.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap ralign">The Author.</p>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<ul class="contents">
+<li><a href="#PREFACE">Authors Preface                          <span class="ralign">v</span></a></li>
+<li class="small">CHAPTER                                                     <span class="ralign">PAGE</span></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_I">    I. Childhood and Youth             <span class="ralign">3</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_II">   II. Glasgow to London&mdash;Return to Glasgow.  <span class="ralign">23</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_III">  III. Captured by Steam             <span class="ralign">45</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">   IV. Partnership with Roebuck       <span class="ralign">67</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_V">    V. Boulton Partnership             <span class="ralign">87</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">   VI. Removal to Birmingham          <span class="ralign">121</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">  VII. Second Patent                 <span class="ralign">157</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"> VIII. The Record of the Steam Engine   <span class="ralign">195</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">   IX. Watt in Old Age                 <span class="ralign">213</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_X">    X. Watt, the Inventor and Discoverer    <span class="ralign">223</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">   XI. Watt, the Man                   <span class="ralign">233</span></a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 3</div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<p class="center subtitle smcap">Childhood and Youth</p>
+
+<p>James Watt, born in Greenock, January 19, 1736, had the advantage, so
+highly prized in Scotland, of being of good kith and kin. He had indeed
+come from a good nest. His great-grandfather, a stern Covenanter, was
+killed at Bridge of Dee, September 12, 1644, in one of the battles which
+Graham of Claverhouse fought against the Scotch. He was a farmer in
+Aberdeenshire, and upon his death the family was driven out of its
+homestead and forced to leave the district.</p>
+
+<p>Watt's grandfather, Thomas Watt, was born in 1642, and found his way to
+Crawford's Dyke, then adjoining, and now part of, Greenock, where he
+founded a school of mathematics, and taught this branch, and also that
+of navigation, to the fishermen and seamen of the locality. That he
+succeeded in this field in so little and poor a community is no small
+tribute to his powers. He was a man of decided ability and great natural
+shrewdness, and very soon began to climb, as such men do. The landlord
+of the district appointed him his Baron Bailie, an office which then had
+important judicial functions. He rose to high position in
+  the <span class="pagenum">Pg. 4</span>town,
+being Bailie and Elder, and was highly respected and honored. He
+subsequently purchased a home in Greenock and settled there, becoming
+one of its first citizens. Before his death he had established a
+considerable business in odds and ends, such as repairing and
+provisioning ships; repairing instruments of navigation, compasses,
+quadrants, etc., always receiving special attention at his hands.</p>
+
+<p>The sturdy son of a sturdy Covenanter, he refused to take the test in
+favor of prelacy (1683), and was therefore proclaimed to be "a
+disorderly school-master officiating contrary to law." He continued to
+teach, however, and a few years later the Kirk Session of Greenock,
+notwithstanding his contumacy, found him "blameless in life and
+conversation," and appointed him an Elder, which required him to
+overlook not only religious observances, but the manners and morals of
+the people. One of the most important of these duties was to provide for
+the education of the young, in pursuance of that invaluable injunction
+of John Knox, "that no father, of what estate or condition that ever he
+may be, use his children at his own fantasie, especially in their
+youthhood, <i>but all must be compelled to bring up their children in
+learning and virtue</i>." Here we have, at its very birth, the doctrine of
+compulsory education for all the people, the secret of Scotland's
+progress. Great as was the service Knox rendered in the field
+ecclesiastical, probably <span class="pagenum">Pg. 5</span>what he did for the cause of public education
+excels it. The man who proclaimed that he would never rest until there
+was a public school in every parish in Scotland must stand for all time
+as one of the foremost of her benefactors; probably, in the extent and
+quality of the influence he exerted upon the national character through
+universal compulsory education, the foremost of all.</p>
+
+<p>The very year after Parliament passed the Act of 1696, which at last
+fulfilled Knox's aspirations, and during the Eldership of Watt's
+grandfather, Greenock made prompt provision for her parish school, in
+which we may be sure the old "teacher of mathematics" did not fail to
+take a prominent part.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas Watt's son, the father of the great inventor, followed in his
+father's footsteps, after his father's death, as shipwright, contractor,
+provider, etc., becoming famous for his skill in the making of the most
+delicate instruments. He built shops at the back of his house, and such
+were the demands upon him that he was able to keep a number of men,
+sometimes as many as fourteen, constantly at work. Like his father, he
+became a man of position and influence in the community, and was
+universally esteemed. Prosperity attended him until after the birth of
+his famous son. The loss of a valuable ship, succeeded by other
+misfortunes, swept away most of the considerable sum which he had made,
+and it was resolved that James <span class="pagenum">Pg. 6</span>would have to be taught a trade, instead
+of succeeding to the business, as had been the intention.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunate it was for our subject, and especially so for the world, that
+he was thus favored by falling heir to the best heritage of all, as Mr.
+Morley calls it in his address to the Midland Institute&mdash;"the necessity
+at an early age to go forth into the world and work for the means needed
+for his own support." President Garfield's verdict was to the same
+effect, "The best heritage to which a man can be born is poverty." The
+writer's knowledge of the usual effect of the heritage of milliondom
+upon the sons of millionaires leads him fully to concur with these high
+authorities, and to believe that it is neither to the rich nor to the
+noble that human society has to look for its preservation and
+improvement, but to those who, like Watt, have to labor that they may
+live, and thus make a proper return for what they receive, as working
+bees, not drones, in the social hive. Not from palace or castle, but
+from the cottage have come, or can come, the needed leaders of our race,
+under whose guidance it is to ascend.</p>
+
+<p>We have a fine record in the three generations of the Watts,
+great-grandfather, grandfather and father, all able and successful men,
+whose careers were marked by steady progress, growing in usefulness to
+their fellows; men of unblemished character, kind and considerate,
+winning the confidence and affection of <span class="pagenum">Pg. 7</span>their neighbors, and leaving
+behind them records unstained.</p>
+
+<p>So much for the male branch of the family tree, but this is only half.
+What of that of the grandmothers and mothers of the line&mdash;equally
+important? For what a Scotch boy born to labor is to become, and how,
+cannot be forecast until we know what his mother is, who is to him
+nurse, servant, governess, teacher and saint, all in one. We must look
+to the Watt women as carefully as to the men; and these fortunately we
+find all that can be desired. His mother was Agnes Muirhead, a
+descendant of the Muirheads of Lachop, who date away back before the
+reign of King David, 1122. Scott, in his "Minstrelsy of the Scottish
+Border," gives us the old ballad of "The Laird of Muirhead," who played
+a great part in these unsettled days.</p>
+
+<p>The good judgment which characterised the Watts for three generations is
+nowhere more clearly shown than in the lady James Watt's father courted
+and finally succeeded in securing for his wife. She is described as a
+gentlewoman of reserved and quiet deportment, "esteemed by her
+neighbours for graces of person as well as of mind and heart, and not
+less distinguished for her sound sense and good manners than for her
+cheerful temper and excellent housewifery." Her likeness is thus drawn,
+and all that we have read elsewhere concerning her confirms the truth of
+the portrait. Williamson says that</p>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 8</div>
+<blockquote><p>the lady to whom he (Thomas Watt) was early united in marriage
+was Miss Agnes Muirhead, a gentlewoman of good understanding and
+superior endowments, whose excellent management in household
+affairs would seem to have contributed much to the order of her
+establishment, as well as to the every-day happiness of a
+cheerful home. She is described as having been a person above
+common in many respects, of a fine womanly presence, ladylike in
+appearance, affecting in domestic arrangements&mdash;according to our
+traditions&mdash;what, it would seem was considered for the time,
+rather a superior style of living. What such a style consisted
+in, the reader shall have the means of judging for himself. One
+of the author's informants on such points more than twenty years
+ago, a venerable lady, then in her eighty-fifth year, was wont
+to speak of the worthy Bailie's wife with much characteristic
+interest and animation. As illustrative of what has just been
+remarked of the internal economy of the family, the old lady
+related an occasion on which she had spent an evening, when a
+girl, at Mrs. Watt's house, and remembered expressing with much
+<i>na&iuml;vet&eacute;</i> to her mother, on returning home, her childish
+surprise that "Mrs. Watt had <i>two</i> candles lighted on the
+table!" Among these and other reminiscences of her youth, one
+venerable informant described James Watt's mother, in her
+eloquent and expressive Doric, as, "a braw, braw, woman&mdash;none
+now to be seen like her."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>There is another account from a neighbor, who also refers to Mrs. Watt
+as being somewhat of the grand lady, but always so kind, so sweet, so
+helpful to all her neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>The Watt family for generations steadily improved and developed. A great
+step upward was made the day Agnes Muirhead was captured. We are liable
+to forget how little of the original strain of an old family remains in
+after days. We glance over the record of the Cecils, for instance, to
+find that the present Marquis <span class="pagenum">Pg. 9</span>has less than one four-thousandth part of
+the Cecil blood; a dozen marriages have each reduced it one-half, and
+the recent restoration of the family to its pristine greatness in the
+person of the late Prime Minister, and in his son, the brilliant young
+Parliamentarian, of whom great things are predicted already, is to be
+credited equally to the recent infusion into the Cecil family of the
+entirely new blood of two successive brides, daughters of commoners who
+made their own way in the world. One was the mother of the late
+statesman, the other his wife and the mother of his sons. So with the
+Watt family, of which we have records of three marriages. Our Watt,
+therefore, had but one-eighth of the original Watt strain; seven-eighths
+being that of the three ladies who married into the family. Upon the
+entrance of a gentlewoman of Agnes Muirhead's qualities hung important
+results, for she was a remarkable character with the indefinable air of
+distinction, was well educated, had a very wise head, a very kind heart
+and all the sensibility and enthusiasm of the Celt, easily touched to
+fine issues. She was a Scot of the Scots and a storehouse of border
+lore, as became a daughter of her house, Muirhead of Lachop.</p>
+
+<p>Here, then, we have existing in the quiet village of Greenock in 1736,
+unknown of men, all the favorable conditions, the ideal soil, from which
+might be expected to appear such "variation of species" as contained
+that <span class="pagenum">Pg. 10</span>rarest of elements, the divine spark we call genius. In due time
+the "variation" made its appearance, now known as Watt, the creator of
+the most potent instrument of mechanical force known to man.</p>
+
+<p>The fond mother having lost several of her children born previously was
+intensely solicitous in her care of James, who was so delicate that
+regular attendance at school was impossible. The greater part of his
+school years he was confined most of the time to his room. This threw
+him during most of his early years into his mother's company and tender
+care. Happy chance! What teacher, what companionship, to compare with
+that of such a mother! She taught him to read most of what he then knew,
+and, we may be sure, fed him on the poetry and romance upon which she
+herself had fed, and for which he became noted in after life. He was
+rated as a backward scholar at school, and his education was considered
+very much neglected.</p>
+
+<p>Let it not be thought, however, that the lad was not being educated in
+some very important departments. The young mind was absorbing, though
+its acquisitions did not count in the school records. Much is revealed
+of his musings and inward development in the account of a visit which he
+paid to his grandmother Muirhead in Glasgow, when it was thought that a
+change would benefit the delicate boy. We read with pleasant surprise
+that he had to be sent for, at the request of the family, and taken
+home. He kept the household <span class="pagenum">Pg. 11</span>so stirred up with his stories, recitations
+and continual ebullitions, which so fairly entranced his Grannie and
+Grandpa and the cousins, that the whole household economy was
+disordered. They lost their sleep, for "Jamie" held them spellbound
+night after night with his wonderful performances. The shy and
+contemplative youngster who had tramped among the hills, reciting the
+stirring ballads of the border, had found an admiring tho astonished
+audience at last, and had let loose upon them.</p>
+
+<p>To the circle at home he was naturally shy and reserved, but to his
+Grannie, Grandpa, and Cousins, free from parental restraint, he could
+freely deliver his soul. His mind was stored with the legends of his
+country, its romance and poetry, and, strong Covenanters as were the
+Watts for generations, tales of the Martyrs were not wanting. The
+heather was on fire within Jamie's breast. But where got you all that
+<i>perferidum Scotorum</i>, my wee mannie&mdash;that store of precious nutriment
+that is to become part of yourself and remain in the core of your being
+to the end, hallowing and elevating your life with ever-increasing
+power? Not at the grammar school we trow. No school but one can instil
+that, where rules the one best teacher you will ever know, genius though
+you be&mdash;the school kept at your mother's knee. Such mothers as Watt had
+are the appointed trainers of genius, and make men good and great, if
+the needed spark be there to enkindle: "Kings they make gods, and meaner
+subjects kings."</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 12</div>
+<p>We have another story of Watt's childhood that proclaims the coming man.
+Precocious children are said rarely to develop far in later years, but
+Watt was pre-eminently a precocious child, and of this several proofs
+are related. A friend looking at the child of six said to his father,
+"You ought to send your boy to a public school, and not allow him to
+trifle away his time at home." "Look how he is occupied before you
+condemn him," said the father. He was trying to solve a problem in
+geometry. His mother had taught him drawing, and with this he was
+captivated. A few toys were given him, which were constantly in use.
+Often he took them to pieces, and out of the parts sometimes constructed
+new ones, a source of great delight. In this way he employed and amused
+himself in the many long days during which he was confined to the house
+by ill health.</p>
+
+<p>It is at this stage the steam and kettle story takes its rise. Mrs.
+Campbell, Watt's cousin and constant companion, recounts, in her
+memoranda, written in 1798:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Sitting one evening with his aunt, Mrs. Muirhead, at the
+tea-table, she said: "James Watt, I never saw such an idle boy;
+take a book or employ yourself usefully; for the last hour you
+have not spoken one word, but taken off the lid of that kettle
+and put it on again, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon
+over the steam, watching how it rises from the spout, and
+catching and connecting the drops of hot water it falls into.
+Are you not ashamed of spending your time in this way?"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>To what extent the precocious boy ruminated upon <span class="pagenum">Pg. 13</span>the phenomenon must be
+left to conjecture. Enough that the story has a solid foundation upon
+which we can build. This more than justifies us in classing it with
+"Newton and the Apple," "Bruce and the Spider," "Tell and the Apple,"
+"Galvani and the Frog," "Volta and the Damp Cloth," "Washington and His
+Little Hatchet," a string of gems, amongst the most precious of our
+legendary possessions. Let no rude iconoclast attempt to undermine one
+of them. Even if they never occurred, it matters little. They should
+have occurred, for they are too good to lose. We could part with many of
+the actual characters of the flesh in history without much loss; banish
+the imaginary host of the spirit and we were poor indeed. So with these
+inspiring legends; let us accept them and add others gladly as they
+arise, inquiring not too curiously into their origin.</p>
+
+<p>While Watt was still in boyhood, his wise father not only taught him
+writing and arithmetic, but also provided a set of small tools for him
+in the shop among the workmen&mdash;a wise and epoch-making gift, for young
+Watt soon revealed such wonderful manual dexterity, and could do such
+astonishing things, that the verdict of one of the workmen, "Jamie has a
+fortune at his finger-ends," became a common saying among them. The most
+complicated work seemed to come naturally to him. One model after
+another was produced to the wonder and delight of his older
+fellow-<span class="pagenum">Pg. 14</span>workmen. Jamie was the pride of the shop, and no doubt of his
+fond father, who saw with pardonable pride that his promising son
+inherited his own traits, and gave bright promise of excelling as a
+skilled handicraftsman.</p>
+
+<p>The mechanical dexterity of the Watts, grandfather, father and son, is
+not to be belittled, for most of the mechanical inventions have come
+from those who have been cunning of hand and have worked as manual
+laborers, generally in charge of the machinery or devices which they
+have improved. When new processes have been invented, these also have
+usually suggested themselves to the able workmen as they experienced the
+crudeness of existing methods. Indeed, few important inventions have
+come from those who have not been thus employed. It is with inventors as
+with poets; few have been born to the purple or with silver spoons in
+their mouths, and we shall plainly see later on that had it not been for
+Watt's inherited and acquired manual dexterity, it is probable that the
+steam engine could never have been perfected, so often did failure of
+experiments arise solely because it was in that day impossible to find
+men capable of executing the plans of the inventor. His problem was to
+teach them by example how to obtain the exact work required when the
+tools of precision of our day were unknown and the men themselves were
+only workmen of the crudest kind. Many of the most <span class="pagenum">Pg. 15</span>delicate parts, even
+of working engines, passed through Watt's own hands, and for most of his
+experimental devices he had himself to make the models. Never was there
+an inventor who had such reason to thank fortune that in his youth he
+had learned to work with his hands. It proved literally true, as his
+fellow-workmen in the shop predicted, that "Jamie's fortune was at his
+finger-ends."</p>
+
+<p>As before stated, he proved a backward scholar for a time, at the
+grammar school. No one seems to have divined the latent powers
+smoldering within. Latin and Greek classics moved him not, for his mind
+was stored with more entrancing classics learned at his mother's knee:
+his heroes were of nobler mould than the Greek demigods, and the story
+of his own romantic land more fruitful than that of any other of the
+past. Busy working man has not time to draw his inspiration from more
+than one national literature. Nor has any man yet drawn fully from any
+but that of his native tongue. We can no more draw our mental sustenance
+from two languages than we can think in two. Man can have but one deep
+source from whence come healing waters, as he can have but one mother
+tongue. So it was with Watt. He had Scotland and that sufficed. When the
+boy absorbs, or rather is absorbed by, Wallace, The Bruce, and Sir John
+Grahame, is fired by the story of the Martyrs, has at heart page after
+page of the country's ballads, and also, <span class="pagenum">Pg. 16</span>in more recent times, is at
+home with Burns' and Scott's prose and poetry, he has little room and
+less desire, and still less need, for inferior heroes. So the dead
+languages and their semi-supernatural, quarrelsome, self-seeking heroes
+passed in review without gaining admittance to the soul of Watt. But the
+spare that fired him came at last&mdash;Mathematics. "Happy is the man who
+has found his work," says Carlyle. Watt found his when yet a boy at
+school. Thereafter never a doubt existed as to the field of his labors.
+The choice of an occupation is a serious matter with most young men.
+There was never room for any question of choice with young Watt. The
+occupation had chosen him, as is the case with genius. "Talent does what
+it can, genius what it must." When the goddess lays her hand upon a
+mortal dedicated to her shrine, concentration is the inevitable result;
+there is no room for anything which does not contribute to her service,
+or rather all things are made contributory to it, and nothing that the
+devotee sees or reads, hears or feels, but some way or other is made to
+yield sustenance for the one great, overmastering task. "The gods send
+thread for a web begun," because the web absorbs everything that comes
+within reach. So it proved with Watt.</p>
+
+<p>At fifteen, he had twice carefully read "The Elements of Philosophy"
+(Gravesend), and had made numerous chemical experiments, repeating them
+again <span class="pagenum">Pg. 17</span>and again, until satisfied of their accuracy. A small electrical
+machine was one of his productions with which he startled his
+companions. Visits to his uncle Muirhead at Glasgow were frequent, and
+here he formed acquaintance with several educated young men, who
+appreciated his abilities and kindly nature; but the visits to the same
+kind uncle "on the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond," where the
+summer months were spent, gave the youth his happiest days.
+Indefatigable in habits of observation and research, and devoted to the
+lonely hills, he extended his knowledge by long excursions, adding to
+his botanical and mineral treasures. Freely entering the cottages of the
+people, he spent hours learning their traditions, superstitions,
+ballads, and all the Celtic lore. He loved nature in her wildest moods,
+and was a true child of the mist, brimful of poetry and romance, which
+he was ever ready to shower upon his friends. An omniverous reader, in
+after life he vindicated his practice of reading every book he found,
+alleging that he had "never yet read a book or conversed with a
+companion without gaining information, instruction or amusement." Scott
+has left on record that he never had met and conversed with a man who
+could not tell him something he did not know. Watt seems to have
+resembled Sir Walter, "who spoke to every man he met as if he were a
+brother"&mdash;as indeed he was&mdash;one of the many fine traits of that noble,
+wholesome character. <span class="pagenum">Pg. 18</span>These two foremost Scots, each supreme in his
+sphere, seem to have had many social traits in common, and both that
+fine faculty of attracting others.</p>
+
+<p>The only "sport" of the youth was angling, "the most fitting practice
+for quiet men and lovers of peace," the "Brothers of the Angle,"
+according to Izaak Walton, "being mostly men of mild and gentle
+disposition." From the ruder athletic games of the school he was
+debarred, not being robust, and this was a constant source of morbid
+misery to him, entailing as it did separation from the other boys. The
+prosecution of his favorite geometry now occupied his thoughts and time,
+and astronomy also became a fascinating study. Long hours were often
+spent, lying on his back in a grove near his home, studying the stars by
+night and the clouds by day.</p>
+
+<p>Watt met his first irreparable loss in 1753, when his mother suddenly
+died. The relations between them had been such as are only possible
+between mother and son. Often had the mother said to her intimates that
+she had been enabled to bear the loss of her daughter only by the love
+and care of her dutiful son. Home was home no longer for Jamie, and we
+are not surprised to find him leaving it soon after she who had been to
+him the light and leading of his life had passed out of it.</p>
+
+<p>Watt now reached his seventeenth year. His father's affairs were greatly
+embarrassed. It was clearly seen that the two brothers, John and James,
+had <span class="pagenum">Pg. 19</span>to rely for their support upon their own unaided efforts. John, the
+elder, some time before this had taken to the sea and been shipwrecked,
+leaving only James at home. Of course, there was no question as to the
+career he would adopt. His fortune "lay at his fingers' ends," and
+accordingly he resolved at once to qualify himself for the trade of a
+mathematical instrument maker, the career which led him directly in the
+pathway of mathematics and mechanical science, and enabled him to
+gratify his unquenchable thirst for knowledge thereof.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally Glasgow was decided upon as the proper place in which to
+begin, and Watt took up his abode there with his maternal relatives, the
+Muirheads, carrying his tools with him.</p>
+
+<p>No mathematical instrument maker was to be found in Glasgow, but Watt
+entered the service of a kind of jack-of-all-trades, who called himself
+an "optician" and sold and mended spectacles, repaired fiddles, tuned
+spinets, made fishing-rods and tackle, etc. Watt, as a devoted brother
+of the angle, was an adept at dressing trout and salmon flies, and handy
+at so many things that he proved most useful to his employer, but there
+was nothing to be learned by the ambitious youth.</p>
+
+<p>His most intimate schoolfellow was Andrew Anderson, whose elder brother,
+John Anderson, was the well-known Professor of natural philosophy, the
+first to <span class="pagenum">Pg. 20</span>open classes for the instruction of working-men in its
+principles. He bequeathed his property to found an institution for this
+purpose, which is now a college of the university. The Professor came to
+know young Watt through his brother, and Watt became a frequent visitor
+at his house. He was given unrestricted access to the Professor's
+valuable library, in which he spent many of his evenings.</p>
+
+<p>One of the chief advantages of the public school is the enduring
+friendships boys form there, first in importance through their
+beneficial influence upon character, and, second, as aids to success in
+after life. The writer has been impressed by this feature, for great is
+the number of instances he has known where the prized working-boy or man
+in position has been able, as additional force was required, to say the
+needed word of recommendation, which gave a start or a lift upward to a
+dearly-cherished schoolfellow. It seems a grave mistake for parents not
+to educate their sons in the region of home, or in later years in
+colleges and universities of their own land, so that early friendships
+may not be broken, but grow closer with the years. Watt at all events
+was fortunate in this respect. His schoolmate, Andrew Anderson, brought
+into his life the noted Professor, with all his knowledge, kindness and
+influence, and opened to him the kind of library he most needed.</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 21</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 22</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 23</div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<p class="center subtitle smcap">Glasgow to London&mdash;Return to Glasgow</p>
+
+
+<p>Through Professor Muirhead, a kinsman of Watt's mother, he was
+introduced to many others of the faculty of the university, and, as
+usual, attracted their attention, especially that of Dr. Dick, Professor
+of natural philosophy, who strongly advised him to proceed to London,
+where he could receive better instruction than it was possible to obtain
+in Scotland at that time. The kind Professor, diviner of latent genius,
+went so far as to give him a personal introduction, which proved
+efficient. How true it is that the worthy, aspiring youth rarely goes
+unrecognised or unaided. Men with kind hearts, wise heads, and influence
+strong to aid, stand ready at every turn to take modest merit by the
+hand and give it the only aid needed, opportunity to speak, through
+results, for itself. So London was determined upon. Fortunately, a
+distant relative of the Watt family, a sea-captain, was about to set
+forth upon that then long and toilsome journey. They started from
+Glasgow June 7, 1755, on horseback, the journey taking twelve days.</p>
+
+<p>The writer's parents often referred to the fact that when the leading
+linen manufacturer of Dunfermline <span class="pagenum">Pg. 24</span>was about to take the journey to
+London&mdash;the only man in the town then who ever did&mdash;special prayers were
+always said in church for his safety.</p>
+
+<p>The member of Parliament in Watt's day from the extreme north of
+Scotland would have consumed nearly twice twelve days to reach
+Westminster. To-day if the capital of the English-speaking race were in
+America, which Lord Roseberry says he is willing it should be, if
+thereby the union of our English-speaking race were secured, the members
+of the Great Council from Britain could reach Washington in seven days,
+the members from British Columbia and California, upon the Pacific, in
+five days, both land and sea routes soon to be much quickened.</p>
+
+<p>Those sanguine prophets who predict the reunion of our race on both
+sides of the Atlantic can at least aver that in view of the union of
+Scotland and England, the element of time required to traverse distances
+to and from the capital is no obstacle, since the most distant points of
+the new empire, Britain in the east and British Columbia and California
+in the west, would be reached in less than one-third the time required
+to travel from the north of Scotland to London at the time of the union.
+Besides, the telegraph to-day binds the parts together, keeping all
+citizens informed, and stirring their hearts simultaneously thousands of
+miles apart&mdash;Glasgow to London, 1755, twelve days; 1905, eight hours.
+Thus under the genius Steam, tamed and <span class="pagenum">Pg. 25</span>harnessed by Watt, the world
+shrinks into a neighborhood, giving some countenance to the dreamers who
+may perchance be proclaiming a coming reality. We may continue,
+therefore, to indulge the hope of the coming "parliament of man, the
+federation of the world," or even the older and wider prophecy of Burns,
+that, "It's coming yet for a' that, when man to man the world o'er,
+shall brithers be for a' that."</p>
+
+<p>There comes to mind that jewel we owe to Plato, which surely ranks as
+one of the most precious of all our treasures: "We should lure ourselves
+as with enchantments, for the hope is great and the reward is noble." So
+with this enchanting dream, better than most realities, even if it be
+all a dream. Let the dreamers therefore dream on. The world, minus
+enchanting dreams, would be commonplace indeed, and let us remember this
+dream is only dreamable because Watt's steam engine is a reality.</p>
+
+<p>After his twelve days on horseback, Watt arrived in London, a stranger
+in a strange land, unknowing and unknown. But the fates had been kind
+for, burdened with neither wealth nor rank, this poor would-be skilled
+mechanic was to have a fair chance by beginning at the bottom among his
+fellows, the sternest yet finest of all schools to call forth and
+strengthen inherent qualities, and impel a poor young man to put forth
+his utmost effort when launched upon the sea of life, where <span class="pagenum">Pg. 26</span>he must
+either sink or swim, no bladders being in reserve for him.</p>
+
+<p>Our young hero rose to the occasion and soon proved that, C&aelig;sar-like, he
+could "stem the waves with heart of controversy." Thus the rude school
+of experience calls forth and strengthens the latent qualities of youth,
+implants others, and forms the indomitable man, fit to endure and
+overcome. Here, for the first time, alone in swarming London, not one
+relative, not one friend, not even an acquaintance, except the kind
+sea-captain, challenged by the cold world around to do or die, fate
+called to Watt as it calls to every man who has his own way to make:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"This is Collingtogle ford,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And thou must keep thee with thy sword."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>When the revelation first rushes upon a youth, hitherto directed by his
+parents, that, boy no more, he must act for himself, presto! change! he
+is a man, he has at last found himself. The supreme test, which proves
+the man, can come in all its winnowing force only to those born to earn
+their own support by training themselves to be able to render to society
+services which command return. This training compels the development of
+powers which otherwise would probably lie dormant. Scotch boy as Watt
+was to the core, with the lowland broad, soft accent, and ignorant of
+foreign literature, it is very certain that he then found support <span class="pagenum">Pg. 27</span>in the
+lessons instilled at his mother's knee. He had been fed on Wallace and
+Bruce, and when things looked darkest, even in very early years, his
+national hero, Wallace, came to mind, and his struggles against fearful
+odds, not for selfish ends, but for his country's independence. Did
+Wallace give up the fight, or ever think of giving up? Never! It was
+death or victory. Bruce and the spider! Did Bruce falter? Never! Neither
+would he. "Scots wa hae," "Let us do or die," implanted before his
+teens, has pulled many a Scottish boy through the crises of life when
+all was dark, as it will pull others yet to come. Altho Burns and Scott
+had yet to appear, to crystallise Scotland's characteristics and plant
+the talismanic words into the hearts of young Scots, Watt had a copious
+supply of the national sentiment, to give him the "stout heart for the
+stye brae," when manhood arrived. His mother had planted deep in him,
+and nurtured, precious seed from her Celtic garden, which was sure to
+grow and bear good fruit.</p>
+
+<p>We are often met with the question, "What is the best possible safeguard
+for a young man, who goes forth from a pure home, to meet the
+temptations that beset his path?" Various answers are given, but,
+speaking that as a Scot, reared as Watt was, the writer believes all the
+suggested safeguards combined scarcely weigh as much as preventives
+against disgracing himself as the thought that it would not be only
+himself he would <span class="pagenum">Pg. 28</span>disgrace, but that he would also bring disgrace upon
+his family, and would cause father, mother, sister and brother to hang
+their heads among their neighbors in secluded village, on far-away moor
+or in lonely glen. The Scotch have strong traces of the Chinese and
+Japanese religious devotion to "the family," and the filial instinct is
+intensely strong. The fall of one member is the disgrace of all. Even
+although Watt's mother had passed, there remained the venerated father
+in Greenock, and the letters regularly written to him, some of which
+have fortunately been preserved, abundantly prove that, tho far from
+home, yet in home and family ties and family duties the young man had
+his strong tower of defence, keeping him from "all sense of sin or
+shame." Watt never gave his father reason for one anxious thought that
+he would in any respect discredit the good name of his forbears.</p>
+
+<p>Many London shops were visited, but the rules of the trade, requiring
+apprentices to serve for seven years, or, being journeymen, to have
+served that time, proved an insuperable obstacle to Watt's being
+employed. His plan was to fit himself by a year's steady work for return
+to Glasgow, there to begin on his own account. He had not seven years to
+spend learning what he could learn in one. He would be his own master.
+Wise young man in this he was. There is not much outcome in the youth
+who does not already see himself captain in his dreams, and steers his
+barque <span class="pagenum">Pg. 29</span>accordingly, true to the course already laid down, not to be
+departed from, under any stress of weather. We see the kind of stuff
+this young Scotch lad was made of in the tenacity with which he held to
+his plan. At last some specimens of his work having seemed very
+remarkable to Mr. John Morgan, mathematical instrument maker, Finch
+Lane, Cornhill, he agreed to give the conquering young man the desired
+year's instructions for his services and a premium of twenty pounds,
+whereupon the plucky fellow who had kept to his course and made port,
+wrote to his father of his success, praising his master "as being of as
+good character, both for accuracy in his business, and good morals, as
+any of his way in London." The order in which this aspiring young man of
+the world records the virtues will not be overlooked. He then adds, "If
+it had not been for Mr. Short, I could not have got a man in London that
+would have undertaken to teach me, as I now find there are not above
+five or six who could have taught me all I wanted."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Short was the gentleman to whom Professor Dick's letter of
+introduction was addressed, who, no more than the Professor himself, nor
+Mr. Morgan, could withstand the extraordinary youth, whom he could not
+refuse taking into his service&mdash;glad to get him no doubt, and delighted
+that he was privileged to instruct one so likely to redound to his
+credit in after years. Thus Watt made his start in London, the <span class="pagenum">Pg. 30</span>twenty
+pounds premium being duly remitted from home.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this time, Watt had been a charge on his father, but it was very
+small, for he lived in the most frugal style at a cost of only two
+dollars per week. In one of his letters to his father he regrets being
+unable to reduce it below that, knowing that his father's affairs were
+not prosperous. He, however, was able to obtain some remunerative work
+on his own account, which he did after his day's task was over, and soon
+made his position secure as a workman. Specialisation he met with for
+the first time, and he expresses surprise that "very few here know any
+more than how to make a rule, others a pair of dividers, and suchlike."
+Here we see that even at that early day division of labor had won its
+way in London, though yet unknown in the country. The
+jack-of-all-trades, the handyman, who can do everything, gives place to
+the specialist who confines himself to one thing in which practice makes
+him perfect. Watt's mission saved him from this, for to succeed he had
+to be master, not of one process, but of all. Hence we find him first
+making brass scales, parallel-rulers and quadrants. By the end of one
+month in this department he was able to finish a Hadley quadrant. From
+this he proceeded to azimuth compasses, brass sectors, theodolites, and
+other delicate instruments. Before his year was finished he wrote his
+father that he had made "a brass <span class="pagenum">Pg. 31</span>sector with a French joint, which is
+reckoned as nice a piece of framing-work as is in the trade," and
+expressed the hope that he would soon now be able to support himself and
+be no longer a charge upon him.</p>
+
+<p>It is highly probable that this first tool finished by his own hands
+brought to Watt more unalloyed pleasure than any of his greater triumphs
+of later years, just as the first week's wages of youth, money earned by
+service rendered, proclaiming coming manhood, brings with it a thrill
+and glow of proud satisfaction, compared with which all the millions of
+later years are as dross.</p>
+
+<p>Writers upon labor, who have never labored, generally make the profound
+mistake of considering labor as one solid mass, when the truth is that
+it contains orders and degrees as distinct as those in aristocracy. The
+workman skilled beyond his fellows, who is called upon by his
+superintendent to undertake the difficult job in emergencies, ranks
+high, and probably enjoys an honorable title, a pet name conferred by
+his shopmates. Men measure each other as correctly in the workshop as in
+the professions, and each has his deserved rank. When the right man is
+promoted, they rally round and enable him to perform wonders. Where
+favoritism or poor judgment is shown, the reverse occurs, and there is
+apathy and dissatisfaction, leading to poor results and serious trouble.
+The manual worker is as proud of his work, and rightly so, as men are in
+other vocations. <span class="pagenum">Pg. 32</span>His life and thought centre in the shop as those of
+members of Congress or Parliament centre in the House; and triumph for
+him in the shop, his world, means exactly the same to him, and appears
+not less important to his family and friends than what leadership is to
+the public man, or in any of the professions. He has all their pride of
+profession, and less vanity than most.</p>
+
+<p>How far this "pride of profession" extends is well illustrated by the
+Pittsburgh story of the street scrapers at their noon repast. MacCarthy,
+recently deceased, was the subject of eulogy, one going so far as to
+assert that he was "the best man that ever scraped a hoe on Liberty
+Street." To this, one who had aspirations "allowed Mac was a good enough
+man on plain work, but around the gas-posts he wasn't worth a cent."</p>
+
+<p>A public character, stopping over night with a friend in the country,
+the maid-of-all-work tells her mistress, after the guest departs, "I
+have read so much about him, never expecting to see him; little did I
+think I should have the honor of brushing his boots this morning." Happy
+girl in her work, knowing that all service is honorable. Even
+shoe-blacking, we see, has its rewards.</p>
+
+<p>A Highland laird and lady, visiting some of their crofters on the moors,
+are met and escorted by a delighted wife to her cot. The children and
+the husband are duly presented. At an opportune moment <span class="pagenum">Pg. 33</span>the proud wife
+cannot refrain from informing her visitors that "it was Donald himsel'
+the laird had to send for to thatch the pretty golf-house at the Castle.
+Donald did all that himsel'," with an admiring glance cast at the
+embarrassed great man. Donald "sent for by the laird at the Castle"
+ranks in Donald's circle and in Donald's own heart with the honor of
+being sent for by His Majesty to govern the empire in Mr. Balfour's
+circle and in Mr. Balfour's own heart. Ten to one the proud Highland
+crofter and his circle reap more genuine, unalloyed satisfaction from
+the message than the lowland statesman and his circle could reap from
+his. But it made Balfour famous, you say. So was Donald made famous, his
+circle not quite so wide as that of his colleague&mdash;that is all. Donald
+is as much "uplifted" as the Prime Minister; probably more so. Thus is
+human nature ever the same down to the roots. Many distinctions, few
+differences in life. We are all kin, members of the one family, playing
+with different toys.</p>
+
+<p>So deep down into the ranks of labor goes the salt of pride of
+profession, preventing rot and keeping all fresh in the main, because on
+the humblest of the workers there shines the bright ray of hope of
+recognition and advancement, progress and success. As long as this vista
+is seen stretching before all is well with labor. There will be
+friction, of course, between capital and labor, but it will be healthy
+friction, <span class="pagenum">Pg. 34</span>needed by, and good for, both. There is the higgling of the
+market in all business. As long as this valuable quality of honest pride
+in one's work exists, and finds deserved recognition, society has
+nothing to fear from the ranks of labor. Those who have had most
+experience with it, and know its qualities and its failings best, have
+no fear; on the contrary, they know that at heart labor is sound, and
+only needs considerate treatment. The kindly personal attention of the
+employer will be found far more appreciated than even a rise in wages.</p>
+
+<p>Enforced confinement and unremitting labor soon told upon Watt's
+delicate constitution, yet he persevered with the self-imposed extra
+work, which brought in a little honest money and reduced the remittances
+from home. He caught a severe cold during the winter and was afflicted
+by a racking cough and severe rheumatic pains. With his father's
+sanction, he decided to return home to recuperate, taking good care
+however, forehanded as he always proved himself, to secure some new and
+valuable tools and a stock of materials to make many others, which "he
+knew he must make himself." A few valuable books were not forgotten,
+among them Bion's work on the "Construction and Use of Mathematical
+Instruments"&mdash;nothing pertaining to his craft but he would know. King he
+would be in that, so everything was made to revolve around it. That was
+the foundation upon which he had to build.</p>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 35</div>
+<p>To the old home in Scotland our hero's face was now turned in the autumn
+of 1756, his twentieth year. His native air, best medicine of all for
+the invalid exile, soon restored his health, and to Glasgow he then
+went, in pursuance of his plan of life early laid down, to begin
+business on his own account. He thus became master before he was man.
+There was not in all Scotland a mathematical instrument maker, and here
+was one of the very best begging permission to establish himself in
+Glasgow. As in London so in Glasgow, however, the rules of the Guild of
+Hammermen, to which it was decided a mathematical instrument maker would
+belong, if one of such high calling made his appearance, prevented Watt
+from entrance if he had not consumed seven years in learning the trade.
+He had mastered it in one, and was ready to demonstrate his ability to
+excel by any kind of test proposed. Watt had entered in properly by the
+door of knowledge and experience of the craft, the only door through
+which entrance was possible, but he had travelled too quickly; besides
+he was "neither the son of a burgess, nor had he served an
+apprenticeship in the borough," and this was conclusive. How the world
+has travelled onward since those days! and yet our day is likely to be
+in as great contrast a hundred and fifty years hence. Protective tariffs
+between nations, and probably wars, may then seem as strangely absurd as
+the hammermen's rules. Even in 1905 we have still a far road to travel.</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 36</div>
+<p>Failing in his efforts to establish himself in business, he asked the
+guild to permit him to rent and use a small workshop to make
+experiments, but even this was refused. We are disposed to wonder at
+this, but it was in strict accordance with the spirit of the times.</p>
+
+<p>When the sky was darkest, the clouds broke and revealed the university
+as his guardian angel. Dr. Dick, Professor of natural philosophy,
+knowing of Watt's skill from his first start in Glasgow, had already
+employed him to repair some mathematical instruments bequeathed to the
+university by a Scotch gentleman in the West Indies, and the work had
+been well done, at a cost of five pounds&mdash;the first contract money ever
+earned by Watt in Glasgow. Good work always tells. Ability cannot be
+kept down forever; if crushed to earth, it rises again. So Watt's "good
+work" brought the Professors to his aid, several of whom he had met and
+impressed most favorably during its progress. The university charter,
+gift of the Pope in 1451, gave absolute authority within the area of its
+buildings, and the Professors resolved to give our hero shelter
+there&mdash;the best day's work they ever did. May they ever be remembered
+for this with feelings of deepest gratitude. What men these were! The
+venerable Anderson has already been spoken of; Adam Smith, who did for
+the science of economics what Watt did for steam, was one of Watt's
+dearest friends; Black, discoverer of latent heat; Robinson, Dick of
+whom we <span class="pagenum">Pg. 37</span>have spoken, and others. Such were the world's benefactors, who
+resolved to take Watt under their protection, and thus enabled him to do
+his appointed work. Glorious university, this of Glasgow, protector and
+nurse of Watt, probably of all its decisions this has been of the
+greatest service to man!</p>
+
+<p>There are universities and universities. Glasgow's peculiar claim to
+regard lies in the perfect equality of the various schools, the
+humanities not neglected, the sciences appreciated, neither accorded
+precedence. Its scientific Professor, Thompson, now Lord Kelvin, was
+recently elevated to the Lord Chancellorship, the highest honor in its
+power to bestow.</p>
+
+<p>Every important university develops special qualities of its own, for
+which it is noted. That of Glasgow is renowned for devotion to the
+scientific field. What a record is hers! Protector of Watt, going to
+extreme measures necessary, not alone to shelter him, but to enable him
+to labor within its walls and support himself; first university to
+establish an engineering school and professorship of engineering; first
+to establish a chemical teaching laboratory for students; first to have
+a physical laboratory for the exercise and instruction of students in
+experimental work; nursery from which came the steam engine of Watt, the
+discovery of latent heat by its Professor Black, and the successful
+operation of telegraph cables by its Professor and present Lord
+Chancellor (Lord Kelvin). May the future of <span class="pagenum">Pg. 38</span>Glasgow University copy fair
+her glorious past! Her "atmosphere" favors and stimulates steady,
+fruitful work. At all Scottish, as at all American universities, we may
+rejoice that there is always found a large number of the most
+distinguished students, who, figuratively speaking, cultivate knowledge
+upon a little oatmeal, earning money between terms to pay their way. It
+is highly probable that a greater proportion of these will be heard from
+in later years than of any other class.</p>
+
+<p>American universities have, fortunately, followed the Glasgow model, and
+are giving more attention to the hitherto much neglected needs of
+science, and the practical departments of education, making themselves
+real universities, "where any man can study everything worth studying."</p>
+
+<p>A room was assigned to Watt, only about twenty feet square, but it
+served him as it has done others since for great work. When the
+well-known author, Dr. Smiles, visited the room, he found in it the
+galvanic apparatus employed by Professor Thompson (Lord Kelvin) for
+perfecting his delicate invention which rendered ocean cables effective.</p>
+
+<p>The kind and wise Professors did not stop here. They went pretty far,
+one cannot but think, when they took the next step in Watt's behalf,
+giving him a small room, which could be made accessible to the public,
+and this he was at liberty to open as a shop for <span class="pagenum">Pg. 39</span>the sale of his
+instruments, for Watt had to make a living by his handiwork. Strange
+work this for a university, especially in those days; but our readers,
+we are sure, will heartily approve the last, as they have no doubt
+approved the first action of the faculty in favor of struggling genius.
+Business was not prosperous at first with Watt, his instruments proving
+slow of sale. Of quadrants he could make three per week with the help of
+a lad, at a profit of forty shillings, but as sea-going ships could not
+then reach Glasgow, few could be sold. A supply was sent to Greenock,
+then the port of Glasgow, and sold by his father. He was reduced, as the
+greatest artists have often been, to the necessity of making what are
+known as "pot-boilers." Following the example of his first master in
+Glasgow he made spectacles, fiddles, flutes, guitars, and, of course,
+flies and fishing-tackle, and, as the record tells, "many dislocated
+violins, fractured guitars, fiddles also, if intreated, did he mend with
+good approbation." Such were his "pot-boilers" that met the situation.</p>
+
+<p>His friend, Professor Black, who, like Professor Dick, had known of
+Watt's talent, one day asked him if he couldn't make an organ for him.
+By this time, Watt's reputation had begun to spread, and it finally
+carried him to the height of passing among his associates as "one who
+knew most things and could make anything." Watt knew nothing about
+organs, but he immediately undertook the work (1762), and the result was
+an <span class="pagenum">Pg. 40</span>indisputable success that led to his constructing, for a mason's
+lodge in Glasgow, a larger "finger organ," "which elicited the surprise
+and admiration of musicians." This extraordinary man improved everything
+he touched. For his second organ he devised a number of novelties, a
+sustained monochord, indicators and regulators of the blast, means for
+tuning to any system, contrivances for improving the stops, etc.</p>
+
+<p>Lest we are led into a sad mistake here, let us stop a moment to
+consider how Watt so easily accomplished wonders, as if by inspiration.
+In all history it may be doubted whether success can be traced more
+clearly to long and careful preparation than in Watt's case. When we
+investigate, for instance, this seeming sleight-of-hand triumph with the
+organs, we find that upon agreeing to make the first, Watt immediately
+devoted himself to a study of the laws of harmony, making science
+supplement his lack of the musical ear. As usual, the study was
+exhaustive. Of course he found and took for guide the highest authority,
+a profound, but obscure book by Professor Smith of Cambridge University,
+and, mark this, he first made a model of the forthcoming organ. It is
+safe to say that there was not then a man in Britain who knew more of
+the science of music and was more thoroughly prepared to excel in the
+art of making organs than the new organ-builder.</p>
+
+<p>When he attacked the problem of steam, as we shall <span class="pagenum">Pg. 41</span>soon see, the same
+course was followed, although it involved the mastering of three
+languages, that he should miss nothing.</p>
+
+<p>We note that the taking of infinite pains, this fore-arming of himself,
+this knowing of everything that was to be known, the note of thorough
+preparation in Watt's career, is ever conspicuous. The best proof that
+he was a man of true genius is that he first made himself master of all
+knowledge bearing upon his tasks.</p>
+
+<p>Watt could not have been more happily situated. His surroundings were
+ideal, the resources of the university were at his disposal, and, being
+conveniently situated, his workshop soon became the rendezvous of the
+faculty. He thus enjoyed the constant intimate companionship of one of
+the most distinguished bodies of educated men of science in the world.
+Glasgow was favored in her faculty those days as now. Two at least of
+Watt's closest friends, the discoverer of latent heat, and the author of
+the "Wealth of Nations," won enduring fame. Others were eminent. He did
+not fail to realise his advantages, and has left several acknowledgments
+of his debt to "those who were all much my superiors, I never having
+attended a college and being then but a mechanic." His so-called
+superiors did not quite see it in this light, as they have abundantly
+testified, but the modesty of Watt was ever conspicuous all through his
+life.</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 42</div>
+<p>Watt led a busy life, the time not spent upon the indispensable
+"pot-boilers" being fully occupied in severe studies; chemistry,
+mathematics and mechanics all received attention. What he was finally to
+become no one could so far predict, but his associates expected
+something great from one who had so deeply impressed them.</p>
+
+<p>Robison (afterwards Professor of natural history in Edinburgh
+University), being nearer Watt's age than the others, became his most
+intimate friend. His introduction to Watt, in 1758, has been described
+by himself. After feasting his eyes on the beautifully finished
+instruments in his shop, Robison entered into conversation with him.
+Expecting to find only a workman, he was surprised to find a
+philosopher. Says Robison:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I had the vanity to think myself a pretty good proficient in my
+favorite study (mathematical and mechanical philosophy), and was
+rather mortified at finding Mr. Watt so much my superior. But
+his own high relish for those things made him pleased with the
+chat of any person who had the same tastes with himself; or his
+innate complaisance made him indulge my curiosity, and even
+encourage my endeavors to form a more intimate acquaintance with
+him. I lounged much about him, and, I doubt not, was frequently
+teasing him. Thus our acquaintance began.</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 43</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 44</div>
+<hr class="chapter" />
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 45</div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<p class="center subtitle smcap">Captured by Steam</p>
+
+<p>The supreme hour of Watt's life was now about to strike. He had become
+deeply interested in the subject of steam, to which Professor Robison
+had called his attention, Robison being then in his twentieth year, Watt
+three years older.</p>
+
+<p>Robison's idea was that steam might be applied to wheel carriages. Watt
+admitted his ignorance of steam then. Nevertheless, he made a model of a
+wheel carriage with two cylinders of tin plate, but being slightly and
+inaccurately made, it failed to work satisfactorily. Nothing more was
+heard of it. Robison soon thereafter left Glasgow. The demon Steam
+continued to haunt Watt. He, who up to this time had never seen even a
+model of a steam engine, strangely discovered in his researches that the
+university actually owned a model of the latest type, the Newcomen
+engine, which had been purchased for the use of the natural philosophy
+class. One wonders how many of the universities in Britain had been so
+progressive. That of Glasgow seems to have recognised at an early day
+the importance of science, in which department she continues famous. The
+coveted and now historical <span class="pagenum">Pg. 46</span>model had been sent to London for repairs.
+Watt urged its prompt return and a sum of money was voted for this
+purpose. Watt was at last completely absorbed in the subject of steam.
+He read all that had been written on the subject. Most of the valuable
+matter those days was in French and Italian, of which there were no
+translations. Watt promptly began to acquire these languages, that he
+might know all that was to be known. He could not await the coming of
+the model, which did not arrive until 1763, and began his own
+experiments in 1761. How did he obtain the necessary appliances and
+apparatus, one asks. The answer is easy. He made them. Apothecaries'
+vials were his steam boilers, and hollowed-out canes his steam-pipes.
+Numerous experiments followed and much was learnt. Watt's account of
+these is appended to the article on "Steam and the Steam Engine" in the
+"Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica," ninth edition.</p>
+
+<p>Detailed accounts of Watt's numerous experiments, failures,
+difficulties, disappointments, and successes, as one after the other
+obstacles were surmounted, is not within the scope of this volume, these
+being all easily accessible to the student, but the general reader may
+be interested in the most important of all the triumphs of the
+indefatigable worker&mdash;the keystone of the arch. The Newcomen model
+arrived at last and was promptly repaired, but was not successful when
+put in operation. Steam enough could not be obtained, although the
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 47</span>boiler seemed of ample capacity. The fire was urged by blowing and more
+steam generated, and still it would not work; a few strokes of the
+piston and the engine stopped. Smiles says that exactly at the point
+when ordinary experimentalists would have abandoned the task, Watt
+became thoroughly aroused. "Every obstacle," says Professor Robison,
+"was to him the beginning of a new and serious study, and I knew he
+would not quit it until he had either discovered its worthlessness or
+had made something of it." The difficulty here was serious. Books were
+searched in vain. No one had touched it. A course of independent
+experiments was essential, and upon this he entered as usual, determined
+to find truth at the bottom of the well and to get there in his own way.
+Here he came upon the fact which led him to the stupendous result. That
+fact was the existence of latent heat, the original discoverer of which
+was Watt's intimate friend, Professor Black. Watt found that water
+converted into steam heated five times its own weight of water to steam
+heat. He says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Being struck with this remarkable fact (effect of latent heat),
+and not understanding the reason of it, I mentioned it to my
+friend, Dr. Black, who then explained to me his doctrine of
+latent heat, which he had taught some time before this period
+(1764); but having myself been occupied with the pursuits of
+business, if I had heard of it I had not attended to it, when I
+thus stumbled upon one of the material facts by which that
+beautiful theory is supported.</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 48</div>
+<p>Here we have an instance of two men in the same university, discovering
+latent heat, one wholly ignorant of the other's doings; fortunately, the
+later discoverer only too glad to acknowledge and applaud the original,
+and, strange to say, going to him to announce the discovery he had made.
+Watt of course had no access to the Professor's classes, and some years
+before the former stumbled upon the fact, the theory had been announced
+by Black, but had apparently attracted little attention. This episode
+reminds us of the advantages Watt had in his surroundings. He breathed
+the very "atmosphere" of scientific and mechanical investigation and
+invention, and had at hand not only the standard books, but the living
+men who could best assist him.</p>
+
+<p>What does latent heat mean? we hear the reader inquire. Let us try to
+explain it in simple language. Arago pronounced Black's experiment
+revealing it as one of the most remarkable in modern physics. Water
+passed as an element until Watt found it was a compound. Change its
+temperature and it exists in three different states, liquid, solid, and
+gaseous&mdash;water, ice and steam. Convert water into steam, and pass, say,
+two pounds of steam into ten pounds of water at freezing point and the
+steam would be wholly liquified, <i>i.e.</i>, become water again, at 212&deg;,
+but the whole ten pounds of freezing water would also be raised to 212&deg;
+in the process. That is to say two <span class="pagenum">Pg. 49</span>pounds of steam will convert ten
+pounds of freezing water into boiling water, so great is the latent heat
+set free in the passage of steam to lower temperatures at the moment
+when the contact of cold surfaces converts the vapor from the gaseous
+into the liquid state. This heat is so thoroughly merged in the compound
+that the most delicate thermometer cannot detect a variation. It is
+undiscoverable by our senses and yet it proves its existence beyond
+question by its work. Heat which is obtained by the combustion of coal
+or wood, lies also in water, to be drawn forth and utilised in steam. It
+is apparently a mere question of temperature. The heat lies latent and
+dead until we raise the temperature of the water to 212&deg;, and it is
+turned to vapor. Then the powerful force is instantly imbued with life
+and we harness it for our purposes.</p>
+
+<p>The description of latent heat which gave the writer the clearest idea
+of it, and at the same time a much-needed reminder of the fact that Watt
+was the discoverer of the practically constant and unvarying amount of
+heat in steam, whatever the pressure, is the following by Mr. Lauder, a
+graduate of Glasgow University and pupil of Lord Kelvin, taken from
+"Watt's Discoveries of the Properties of Steam."</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>It is well to distinguish between the two things, Discovery and
+Invention. The title of Watt the Inventor is world-wide, and is
+so just and striking that there is none to gainsay. But it is
+only to the <span class="pagenum">Pg. 50</span>few that dive deeper that Watt the Discoverer is
+known. When his mind became directed to the possibilities of the
+power of steam, he, following his natural bent, began to
+investigate its properties. The mere inventor would have been
+content with what was already known, and utilised such
+knowledge, as Newcomen had done in his engine. Watt might have
+invented the separate condenser and ranked as a great inventor,
+but the spirit of enquiry was in possession of him, and he had
+to find out all he could about the <i>nature</i> of steam.</p>
+
+<p>His first discovery was that of latent heat. When communicating
+this to Professor Black he found that his friend had anticipated
+him, and had been teaching it in lectures to his students for
+some years past. His next step was the discovery of the <i>total</i>
+heat of steam, and that this remains practically constant at all
+pressures. Black's fame rests upon his theory of latent heat;
+Watt's fame as the discoverer of the total heat of steam should
+be equally great, and would be no doubt had his r&ocirc;le of inventor
+not overshadowed all his work.</p>
+
+<p>This part of Watt's work has been so little known that it is
+almost imperative to-day to give some idea of it to the general
+reader. Suppose you take a flask, such as olive oil is often
+sold in, and fill with cold water. Set it over a lighted lamp,
+put a thermometer in the water, and the temperature will be
+observed to rise steadily till it reaches 212&deg;, where it
+remains, the water boils, and steam is produced freely. Now draw
+the thermometer out of the water, but leaving it still in the
+steam. It remains steady at the same point&mdash;212&deg;. Now it
+requires quite a long time and a large amount of heat to convert
+all the water into steam. As the steam goes off at the same
+temperature as the water, it is evident a quantity of heat has
+escaped in the steam, of which the thermometer gives us no
+account. This is latent heat.</p>
+
+<p>Now, if you blow the steam into cold water instead of allowing
+it to pass into the air, you will find that it heats the water
+six times more than what is due to its indicated temperature. To
+fix your ideas: suppose you take 100 lbs. of water at 60&deg;, and
+blow one pound of steam into it, making 101 lbs., its
+temperature will now be about 72&deg;, a rise of 12&deg;. Return to your
+100 lbs. of water at 60&deg; and add <span class="pagenum">Pg. 51</span>one pound of water at 212&deg; the
+same temperature as the steam you added, and the temperature
+will only be raised about 2&deg;. The one pound of steam heats six
+times more than the one pound of water, both being at the same
+temperature. This is the quantity of latent heat, which means
+simply hidden heat, in steam.</p>
+
+<p>Proceeding further with the experiment, if, instead of allowing
+the steam to blow into the water, you confine it until it gets
+to some pressure, then blow it into the water, it takes the same
+weight to raise the temperature to the same degree. This means
+that the total heat remains practically the same, no matter at
+what pressure.</p>
+
+<p>This is James Watt's discovery, and it led him to the use of
+high-pressure steam, used expansively.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Even coal may yet be superseded before it is exhausted, for as eminent
+an authority as Professor Pritchett of the Massachusetts Institute of
+Technology has said in a recent address:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Watt's invention and all it has led to is only a step on the way
+to harnessing the forces of nature to the service of man. Do you
+doubt that other inventions will work changes even more sweeping
+than those which the steam engine has brought?</p>
+
+<p>Consider a moment. The problem of which Watt solved a part is
+not the problem of inventing a machine, but the problem of using
+and storing the forces of nature which now go to waste. Now to
+us who live on the earth there is only one source of power&mdash;the
+sun. Darken the sun and every engine on the earth's surface
+would soon stop, every wheel cease to turn, and all movement
+cease. How prodigal this supply of power is we seldom stop to
+consider. Deducting the atmospheric absorption, it is still true
+that the sun delivers on each square yard of the earth's
+surface, when he is shining, the equivalent of one horse-power
+working continuously. Enough mechanical power goes to waste on
+the college campus to warm and light and supply all the
+manufactories, street railroads and other consumers of
+mechanical power in the city. How to harness this power and to
+store it&mdash;that is the problem of the inventor and the <span class="pagenum">Pg. 52</span>engineer
+of the twentieth century, a problem which in good time is sure
+to be solved.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Who shall doubt, after finding this secret source of force in water,
+that some future Watt is to discover other sources of power, or
+perchance succeed in utilising the superabundant power known to exist in
+the heat of the sun, or discover the secret of the latent force employed
+by nature in animals, which converts chemical energy directly into the
+dynamic form, giving much higher efficiencies than any thermo-dynamic
+machine has to-day or probably ever can have. Little knew Shakespeare of
+man's perfect power of motion which utilises all energy! How came he
+then to exclaim "What a piece of work is man; how infinite in faculty;
+in form and <i>moving</i> how express and admirable"? This query, and a
+thousand others, have arisen; for we forget Arnold's lines to the
+Master:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Others abide our question. Thou art free.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">We ask and ask&mdash;thou smilest and art still."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Man's "moving" is found more "express and admirable" than that of the
+most perfect machine or adaptation of natural forces yet devised. Lord
+Kelvin says the animal motor more closely resembles an electro-magnetic
+engine than a heat engine, but very probably the chemical forces in
+animals produce the external mechanical effects through electricity and
+do not act as a thermo-dynamic engine.</p>
+
+<p>The wastage of heat energy under present methods <span class="pagenum">Pg. 53</span>is appalling. About 65
+per cent. of the heat energy of coal can be put into the steam boiler,
+and from this only 15 per cent. of mechanical power is obtained. Thus
+about nine-tenths of the original heat in coal is wasted. Proceeding
+further and putting mechanical power into electricity, only from 2 to 5
+per cent. is turned into light; or, in other words, from coal to light
+we get on an average only about one-half of 1 per cent. of the original
+energy, a wastage of ninety-nine and one-half of every hundred pounds of
+coal used. The very best possible with largest and best machinery is a
+little more than one pound from every hundred consumed.</p>
+
+<p>When Watt gave to the steam-engine five times its efficiency by
+utilising the latent heat, he only touched the fringe of the mysterious
+realm which envelops man.</p>
+
+<p>Burbank, of the spineless cactus and new fruits, who has been delving
+deep into the mysteries, tells us:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The facts of plant life demand a kinetic theory of evolution, a
+slight change from Huxley's statement that, "Matter is a
+magazine of force," to that of matter being force alone. The
+time will come when the theory of "ions" will be thrown aside,
+and no line left between force and matter.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Professor Matthews, he who, with Professor Loeb at Wood's Hole, is
+imparting life to sea-urchins through electrical reactions, declares
+"that certain chemical substances coming together under certain
+conditions are bound to produce life. All life comes through the
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 54</span>operation of universal laws." We are but young in all this mysterious
+business. What lies behind and probably near at hand may not merely
+revolutionise material agencies but human preconceptions as well. "There
+are more things in Heaven and Earth than are ever dreamt of in your
+Philosophy."</p>
+
+<p>Latent Heat was a find indeed, but there remained another discovery yet
+to make. Watt found that no less than four-fifths of all the steam used
+was lost in heating the cold cylinder, and only one-fifth performed
+service by acting on the piston. Prevent this, and the power of the
+giant is increased fourfold. Here was the prize to contend for. Win this
+and the campaign is won. First then, what caused the loss? This was soon
+determined. The cylinder was necessarily cooled at the top because it
+was open to the air, and also cooled below in condensing the charge of
+steam that had driven the piston up in order to create a vacuum, without
+which the piston would not descend from top to bottom, to begin another
+upward stroke. A jet of cold water was introduced to effect this. How to
+surmount this seemingly insuperable obstacle was the problem that kept
+Watt long in profound study.</p>
+
+<p>Many plans were entertained, only to be finally rejected. At last the
+flash came into that teeming brain like a stroke of lightning. Eureka!
+he had found it. Not one scintilla of doubt ever intruded thereafter.
+The solution lay right there and he would invent <span class="pagenum">Pg. 55</span>the needed appliances.
+His mode of procedure, when on the trail of big game, is beautifully
+illustrated here. When he found the root of the defect which rendered
+the Newcomen engine impracticable for general purposes, he promptly
+formulated the one indispensable condition which alone met the problem,
+and which the successful steam-engine must possess. He abandoned all
+else for the time as superfluous, since this was the key of the
+position. This is the law he then laid down as an axiom&mdash;which is
+repeated in his specification for his first patent in 1769: "To make a
+perfect steam engine it was necessary that the cylinder should be always
+as hot as the steam which entered it, and that the steam should be
+cooled below 100&deg; to exert its full powers."</p>
+
+<p>Watt describes how at last the idea of the "separate condenser," the
+complete cure, flashed suddenly upon his mind:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I had gone to take a walk on a fine Sabbath afternoon, early in
+1765. I had entered the green by the gate at the foot of
+Charlotte Street and had passed the old washing-house. I was
+thinking upon the engine at the time, and had gone as far as the
+herd's house, when the idea came into my mind that as steam was
+an elastic body it would rush into a vacuum, and if a
+communication were made between the cylinder and an exhausted
+vessel it would rush into it, and might be there condensed
+without cooling the cylinder. I then saw that I must get rid of
+the condensed steam and injection-water if I used a jet as in
+Newcomen's engine. Two ways of doing this occurred to me. First,
+the water might be run off by a descending pipe, if an offlet
+could be <span class="pagenum">Pg. 56</span>got at the depth of thirty-five or thirty-six feet, and
+any air might be extracted by a small pump. The second was to
+make the pump large enough to extract both water and air ... I
+had not walked farther than the golf-house when the whole thing
+was arranged in my mind.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Professor Black says, "This capital improvement flashed upon his mind at
+once and filled him with rapture." We may imagine</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Then felt he like some watcher of the skies<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When a new planet sweeps into his ken."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>A new world had sprung forth in Watt's brain, for nothing less has the
+steam engine given to man. One reads with a smile the dear modest man's
+deprecatory remarks about the condenser in after years, when he was
+overcome by the glowing tributes paid him upon one occasion and hailed
+as having conquered hitherto uncontrollable steam. He stammered out
+words to the effect that it came in his way and he happened to find it;
+others had missed it; that was all; somebody had to stumble upon it.
+That is all very well, and we love thee, Jamie Watt (he was always Jamie
+to his friends), for such self-abnegation, but the truth of history must
+be vindicated for all that. It proclaims, Thou art the man; go up higher
+and take your seat there among the immortals, the inventor of the
+greatest of all inventions, a great discoverer and one of the noblest of
+men!</p>
+
+<p>In this one change lay all the difference between the <span class="pagenum">Pg. 57</span>Newcomen engine,
+limited to atmospheric pressure, and the steam engine, capable of
+development into the modern engine through the increasing use of the
+tremendous force of steam under higher pressures, and improved
+conditions from time to time.</p>
+
+<p>Watt leads the steam out of the cylinder and condenses it in a separate
+vessel, leaving the cylinder hot. He closes the cylinder top and sends a
+circular piston (hitherto all had been square) through it, and closely
+stuffs it around to prevent escape of steam. The rapidity of the
+"strokes" gained keeps the temperature of the cylinder high; besides, he
+encases it and leaves a space between cylinder and covering filled with
+steam. Thus he fulfils his law: "The cylinder is kept as hot as the
+steam that enters." "How simple!" you exclaim. "Is that all? How
+obviously this is the way to do it!" Very true, surprised reader, but
+true, also, that no condenser and closed cylinder, no modern steam
+engine.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday morning following the Sabbath flash, we find Watt was up
+betimes at work upon the new idea. How many hours' sleep he had enjoyed
+is not recorded, but it may be imagined that he had several visions of
+the condenser during the night. One was to be made at once; he borrowed
+from a college friend a brass syringe, the body of which served as a
+cylinder. The first condenser vessel was an improvised syringe and a tin
+can. From such an acorn the mighty oak was to grow. The experiment was
+successful and <span class="pagenum">Pg. 58</span>the invention complete, but Watt saw clearly that years
+of unceasing labor might yet pass before the details could all be worked
+out and the steam engine appear ready to revolutionise the labor of the
+world. During these years, Professor Black was his chief adviser and
+encouraged him in hours of disappointment. The true and able friend not
+only did this, but furnished him with money needed to enable him to
+concentrate all his time and strength upon the task.</p>
+
+<p>Most opportunely, at this juncture, came Watt's marriage, to his cousin
+Miss Miller, a lady to whom he had long been deeply attached. Watt's
+friends are agreed in stating that the marriage was of vast importance,
+for he had not passed untouched through the days of toil and trial.
+Always of a meditative turn, somewhat prone to melancholy when without
+companionship, and withal a sufferer from nervous headaches, there was
+probably no gift of the gods equal to that of such a wife as he had been
+so fortunate as to secure. Gentle yet strong in her gentleness, it was
+her courage, her faith, and her smile that kept Watt steadfast. No doubt
+he, like many other men blessed with an angel in the household, could
+truly aver that his worrying cares vanished at the doorstep.</p>
+
+<p>Watt had at last, what he never had before, a home. More than one
+intimate friend has given expression to the doubt whether he could have
+triumphed without Mrs. Watt's bright and cheerful temperament to keep
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 59</span>him from despondency during the trying years which he had now to
+encounter. Says Miss Campbell:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I have not entered into any of the interesting details my mother
+gave me of Mr. Watt's early and constant attachment to his
+cousin Miss Miller; but she ever considered it as having added
+to his enjoyment of life, and as having had the most beneficial
+influence on his character. Even his powerful mind sank
+occasionally into misanthropic gloom, from the pressure of
+long-continued nervous headaches, and repeated disappointments
+in his hopes of success in life. Mrs. Watt, from her sweetness
+of temper, and lively, cheerful disposition, had power to win
+him from every wayward fancy; to rouse and animate him to active
+exertion. She drew out all his gentle virtues, his native
+benevolence and warm affections.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>From all that has been recorded of her, we are justified in classing
+Watt with Bassanio.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">"It is very meet<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He live an upright life,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For having such a blessing in his lady,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And if on earth he do not merit it,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In reason he should never come to heaven."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Watt knew and felt this and let us hope that, as was his duty, he let
+Mrs. Watt know it, not only by act, but by frequent acknowledgment.</p>
+
+<p>Watt did not marry imprudently, for his instrument-making business had
+increased, as was to have been expected, for his work soon made a
+reputation as being most perfectly executed. At first he was able to
+carry out all his orders himself; now he had as <span class="pagenum">Pg. 60</span>many as sixteen workmen.
+He took a Mr. Craig as a partner, to obtain needed capital. His profits
+one year were $3,000. The business had been removed in 1760 to new
+quarters in the city, and Watt himself had rented a house outside the
+university grounds. Having furnished it, Watt brought his young wife and
+installed her there, July, 1764. We leave him there, happy in the
+knowledge that he is to be carefully looked after, and, last but not
+least, steadily encouraged and counselled not to give up the engine. As
+we shall presently see, such encouragement was much needed at intervals.</p>
+
+<p>The first step was to construct a model embodying all the inventions in
+a working form. An old cellar was rented, and there the work began. To
+prepare the plan was easy, but its execution was quite another story.
+Watt's sad experience with indifferent work had not been lost upon him,
+and he was determined that, come what may, this working model should not
+fail from imperfect construction. His own handiwork had been of the
+finest and most delicate kind, but, as he said, he had "very little
+experience of mechanics <i>in great</i>." This model was a monster in those
+days, and great was the difficulty of finding mechanics capable of
+carrying out his designs. The only available men were blacksmiths and
+tinsmiths, and these were most clumsy workmen, even in their own crafts.
+Were Watt to revisit the earth to-day, he would not easily <span class="pagenum">Pg. 61</span>find a more
+decided change or advance over 1764, in all that has been changed or
+improved since then, than in this very department of applied mechanics.
+To-day such a model as Watt constructed in the cellar would be simple
+work indeed. Even the gasoline or the electric motor of to-day, though
+complicated far beyond the steam model, is now produced by automatic
+machinery. Skilled workmen do not have to fashion the parts. They only
+stand looking on at machinery&mdash;itself made by automatic
+tools&mdash;performing work of unerring accuracy. Had Watt had at his call
+only a small part of the inventory resources of our day, his model steam
+engine might have been named the Minerva, for Minerva-like, it would
+have sprung forth complete, the creature of automatic machinery, the
+workmen meanwhile smilingly looking on at these slaves of the mechanic
+which had been brought forth and harnessed to do his bidding by the
+exercise of godlike reason.</p>
+
+<p>The model was ready after six months of unceasing labor, but
+notwithstanding the scrupulous fastidiousness displayed by Watt in the
+workmanship of all the parts, the machine, alas, "snifted at many
+openings." Little can our mechanics of to-day estimate what "perfect
+joints" meant in those days. The entire correctness of the great idea
+was, however, demonstrated by the trials made. The right principle had
+been discovered; no doubt of that. Watt's decision was that "it must be
+followed to an issue." There was no peace <span class="pagenum">Pg. 62</span>for him otherwise. He wrote
+(April, 1765) to a friend, "My whole thoughts are bent on this machine.
+I can think of nothing else." Of course not; he was hot in the chase of
+the biggest game hunter ever had laid eyes on. He had seen it, and he
+knew he had the weapons to bring it down. A larger model, free as
+possible from defects which he felt he could avoid in the next, was
+promptly determined upon. A larger and better shop was obtained, and
+here Watt shut himself up with an assistant and erected the second
+model. Two months sufficed, instead of six required for the first. This
+one also at first trial leaked in many directions, and the condenser
+needed alterations. Nevertheless, the engine accomplished much, for it
+worked readily with ten and one-half pounds pressure per square inch, a
+decided increase over previous results. It was still the cylinder and
+its piston that gave Watt the chief trouble. No wonder the cylinder
+leaked. It had to be hammered into something like true lines, for at
+that day so backward was the art that not even the whole collective
+mechanical skill of cylinder-making could furnish a bored cylinder of
+the simplest kind. This is not to be construed as unduly hard upon
+Glasgow, for it is said that all the skill of the world could not do so
+in 1765, only one hundred and forty years ago. We travel so fast that it
+is not surprising that there are wiseacres among us quite convinced that
+we are standing still.</p>
+
+<p>We may be pardoned for again emphasising the fact <span class="pagenum">Pg. 63</span>that it is not only
+for his discoveries and inventions that Watt is to be credited, but also
+for the manual ability displayed in giving to these "airy nothings of
+the brain, a local habitation and a name," for his greatest idea might
+have remained an "airy nothing," had he not been also the mechanician
+able to produce it in the concrete. It is not, therefore, only Watt the
+inventor, Watt the discoverer, but also Watt, the manual worker, that
+stands forth. As we shall see later on, he created a new type of workmen
+capable of executing his plans, working with, and educating them often
+with his own hands. Only thus did he triumph, laboring mentally and
+physically. Watt therefore must always stand among the benefactors of
+men, in the triple capacity of discoverer, inventor, and constructor.</p>
+
+<p>The defects of the cylinder, though serious, were clearly mechanical.
+Their certain cure lay in devising mechanical tools and appliances and
+educating workmen to meet the new demands. An exact cylinder would leave
+no room for leakage between its smooth and true surface and the piston;
+but the solution of another difficulty was not so easily indicated. Watt
+having closed the top of the cylinder to save steam, was debarred from
+using water on the upper surface of the piston as Newcomen did, to fill
+the interstices between piston and cylinder and prevent leakage of
+steam, as his piston was round and passed through the <span class="pagenum">Pg. 64</span>top of the
+cylinder. The model leaked badly from this cause, and while engaged
+trying numerous expedients to meet this, and many different things for
+stuffing, he wrote to a friend, "My old White Iron man is dead." This
+being the one he had trained to be his best mechanic, was a grievous
+loss in those days. Misfortunes never come singly; he had just started
+the engine after overhauling it, when the beam broke. Discouraged, but
+not defeated, he battled on, steadily gaining ground, meeting and
+solving one difficulty after another, certain that he had discovered how
+to utilise steam.</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 65</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 66</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 67</div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<p class="center subtitle smcap">Partnership with Roebuck</p>
+
+<p>Capital was essential to perfect and place the engine upon the market;
+it would require several thousand pounds. Had Watt been a rich man, the
+path would have been clear and easy, but he was poor, having no means
+but those derived from his instrument-making business, which for some
+time had necessarily been neglected. Where was the daring optimist who
+could be induced to risk so much in an enterprise of this character,
+where result was problematical. Here, Watt's best friend, Professor
+Black, who had himself from his own resources from time to time relieved
+Watt's pressing necessities, proved once more the friend in time of
+need. Black thought of Dr. Roebuck, founder of the celebrated Carron
+Iron Works near by, which Burns apostrophised in these lines, when
+denied admittance:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"We cam na here to view your works<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In hopes to be mair wise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But only lest we gang to hell<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It may be nae surprise."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>He was approached upon the subject by Dr. Black, and finally, in
+September, 1765, he invited Watt to <span class="pagenum">Pg. 68</span>visit him with the Professor at his
+country home, and urged him to press forward his invention "whether he
+pursued it as a philosopher or as a man of business." In the month of
+November Watt sent Roebuck drawings of a covered cylinder and piston to
+be cast at his works, but it was so poorly done as to be useless. "My
+principal difficulty in making engines," he wrote Roebuck, "is always
+the smith-work."</p>
+
+<p>By this time, Watt was seriously embarrassed for money. Experiments cost
+much and brought in nothing. His duty to his family required that he
+should abandon these for a time and labor for means to support it. He
+determined to begin as a surveyor, as he had mastered the art when
+making surveying instruments, as was his custom to study and master
+wherever he touched. He could never rest until he knew all there was to
+know about anything. Of course he succeeded. Everybody knew he would,
+and therefore business came to him. Even a public body, the magistrates
+of Glasgow, had not the slightest hesitation in obtaining his services
+to survey a canal which was to open a new coal field. He was also
+commissioned to survey the proposed Forth and Clyde canal. Had he been
+content to earn money and become leading surveyor or engineer of
+Britain, the world might have waited long for the forthcoming giant
+destined to do the world's work; but there was little danger of this.
+The world had not a temptation <span class="pagenum">Pg. 69</span>that could draw Watt from his appointed
+work. His thoughts were ever with his engine, every spare moment being
+devoted to it. Roebuck's speculative and enterprising nature led him
+also into the entrancing field of steam. It haunted him until finally,
+in 1767, he decided to pay off Watt's debts to the amount of a thousand
+pounds, provide means for further experiments, and secure a patent for
+the engine. In return, he became owner of two thirds of the invention.</p>
+
+<p>Next year Watt made trial of a new and larger model, with unsatisfactory
+results upon the first trial. He wrote Roebuck that "by an unforeseen
+misfortune, the mercury found its way into the cylinder and played the
+devil with the solder." Only after a month's hard labor was the second
+trial made, with very different and indeed astonishing results&mdash;"success
+to my heart's content," exclaimed Watt. Now he would pay his
+long-promised debt to his partner Roebuck, to whom he wrote, "I
+sincerely wish you joy of this successful result, and hope it will make
+some return for the obligations I owe you." The visit of congratulation
+paid to his partner Roebuck, was delightful. Now were all their griefs
+"in the deep bosom of the ocean buried" by this recent success. Already
+they saw fortunes in their hands, so brightly shone the sun these few
+but happy days. But the old song has its lesson:</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 70</div>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I've seen the morning the gay hills adorning,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I've seen it storming before the close of day."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Instead of instant success, trying days and years were still before
+them. A patent was decided upon, a matter of course and almost of
+formality in our day, but far from this at that time, when it was
+considered monopolistic and was highly unpopular on that account. Watt
+went to Berwick-on-Tweed to make the required declaration before a
+Master in Chancery. In August, 1768, we find him in London about the
+patent, where he became so utterly wearied with the delays, and so
+provoked with the enormous fees required to protect the invention, that
+he wrote his wife in a most despairing mood. She administered the right
+medicine in reply, "I beg you will not make yourself uneasy though
+things do not succeed as you wish. If the engine will not do, something
+else will; never despair." Happy man whose wife is his best doctor. From
+the very summit of elation, to which he had been raised by the success
+of the model, Watt was suddenly cast down into the valley of despair to
+find that only half of his heavy task was done, and the hill of
+difficulty still loomed before. Reaction took place, and the fine brain,
+so long strained to utmost tension, refused at intervals to work at high
+pressure. He became subject to recurring fits of despondency,
+aggravated, if not primarily caused by anxiety for his family, who could
+not be <span class="pagenum">Pg. 71</span>maintained unless he engaged in work yielding prompt returns.</p>
+
+<p>We may here mention one of his lifelong traits, which revealed itself at
+times. Watt was no man of affairs. Business was distasteful to him. As
+he once wrote his partner, Boulton, he "would rather face a loaded
+cannon than settle a disputed account or make a bargain." Monetary
+matters were his special aversion. For any other form of annoyance,
+danger or responsibility, he had the lion heart. Pecuniary
+responsibility was his bogey of the dark closet. He writes that,
+"Solomon said that in the increase of knowledge there is increase of
+sorrow: if he had substituted <i>business</i> for knowledge it would have
+been perfectly true."</p>
+
+<p>Roebuck shines out brilliantly in this emergency. He was always
+sanguine, and encouraged Watt to go forward. October, 1768, he writes:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>You are now letting the most active part of your life insensibly
+glide away. A day, a moment, ought not to be lost. And you
+should not suffer your thoughts to be diverted by any other
+object, or even improvement of this [model], but only the
+speediest and most effectual manner of executing an engine of a
+proper size, according to your present ideas.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Watt wrote Dr. Small in January, 1769, "I have much contrived and little
+executed. How much would good health and spirits be worth to me!" and a
+month later, "I am still plagued with headaches and sometimes
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 72</span>heartaches." Sleepless nights now came upon him. All this time, however,
+he was absorbed in his one engrossing task. Leupold's "Theatrim
+Machinarum," which fell into his hands, gave an account of the
+machinery, furnaces and methods of mine-working in the upper Hartz.
+Alas! the book was in German, and he could not understand it. He
+promptly resolved to master the language, sought out a Swiss-German dyer
+then settled in Glasgow whom he engaged to give him lessons. So German
+and the German book were both mastered. Not bad work this from one in
+the depths of despair. It has been before noted that for the same end he
+had successfully mastered French and Italian. So in sickness as in
+health his demon steam pursued him, giving him no rest.</p>
+
+<p>Watt had a hard piece of work in preparing his first
+patent-specification, which was all-important in those early days of
+patent "monopolies" as these were considered. Their validity often
+turned upon a word or two too much or too little. It was as dangerous to
+omit as to admit. Professionals agree in opinion that Watt here
+displayed extraordinary ability.</p>
+
+<p>In nothing has public opinion more completely changed than in its
+attitude toward patents. In Watt's day, the inventor who applied for a
+patent was a would-be monopolist. The courts shared the popular belief.
+Lord Brougham vehemently remonstrated <span class="pagenum">Pg. 73</span>against this, declaring that the
+inventor was entitled to remuneration. Every point was construed against
+the unfortunate benefactor, as if he were a public enemy attempting to
+rob his fellows. To-day the inventor is hailed as the foremost of
+benefactors.</p>
+
+<p>Notable indeed is it that on the very day Watt obtained his first
+patent, January 5th, 1769, Arkwright got his spinning-frame patent. Only
+the year before Hargreaves obtained his patent for the spinning-jenny.
+These are the two inventors, with Whitney, the American inventor of the
+cotton-gin, from whose brains came the development of the textile
+industry in which Britain still stands foremost. Fifty-six millions of
+spindles turn to-day in the little island&mdash;more than all the rest of the
+civilised world can boast. Much later came Stephenson with his
+locomotive. Here is a record for a quartette of manual laborers in the
+truest sense, actual wage-earners as mechanics&mdash;Watt, Stephenson,
+Arkwright, and Hargreaves! Where is that quartette to be equalled?</p>
+
+<p>Workingmen of our day should ponder over this, and take to heart the
+truth that manual mechanical labor is the likeliest career to develop
+mechanical inventors and lead them to such distinction as these
+benefactors of man achieved. If disposed to mourn the lack of
+opportunity, they should think of these working-men, whose advantages
+were small compared to those of our day.</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 74</div>
+<p>The greatest invention of all, the condenser, is fully covered by the
+first patent of 1769. The best engine up to this time was the Newcomen,
+exclusively used for pumping water. As we have seen, it was an
+atmospheric engine, in no sense a steam engine. Steam was only used to
+force the heavy piston upward, no other work being done by it. All the
+pumping was done on the downward stroke. The condensation of the spent
+steam below the piston created a vacuum, which only facilitated the fall
+of the piston. This caused the cylinder to be cooled between each stroke
+and led to the wastage of about four-fifths of all the steam used. It
+was to save this that the condenser was invented, in obedience to Watt's
+law, as stated in his patent, that "the cylinder should be kept always
+as hot as the steam that entered it"; but it must be kept clearly in
+mind that Watt's "modified machines," under his first patent, only used
+steam to do work upon the upward stroke, where Newcomen used it only to
+force up the piston. The double-acting engine&mdash;doing work up and
+down&mdash;came later, and was protected in the second patent of 1780.</p>
+
+<p>Watt knew better than any that although his model had been successful
+and was far beyond the Newcomen engine, it was obvious that it could be
+improved in many respects&mdash;not the least of his reasons for confidence
+in its final and more complete triumph.</p>
+
+<p>To these possible improvements, he devoted himself <span class="pagenum">Pg. 75</span>for years. The
+records once again remind us that it was not one invention, but many,
+that his task involved. Smiles gives the following epitome of some of
+those pressing at this stage:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Various trials of pipe-condensers, plate-condensers and
+drum-condensers, steam-jackets to prevent waste of heat, many
+trials of new methods to tighten the piston band, condenser
+pumps, oil pumps, gauge pumps, exhausting cylinders,
+loading-valves, double cylinders, beams and cranks&mdash;all these
+contrivances and others had to be thought out and tested
+elaborately amidst many failures and disappointments.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>There were many others.</p>
+
+<p>All unaided, this supreme toiler thus slowly and painfully evolved the
+steam engine after long years of constant labor and anxiety, bringing to
+the task a union of qualities and of powers of head and hand which no
+other man of his time&mdash;may we not venture to say of all time&mdash;was ever
+known to possess or ever exhibited.</p>
+
+<p>When a noble lord confessed to him admiration for his noble
+achievements, Watt replied, "The public only look at my success and not
+at the intermediate failures and uncouth constructions which have served
+me as so many steps to climb to the top of the ladder."</p>
+
+<p>Quite true, but also quite right. The public have no time to linger over
+a man's mistakes. What concerns is his triumphs. We "rise upon our dead
+selves (failures) to higher things," and mistakes, recognised <span class="pagenum">Pg. 76</span>as such in
+after days, make for victory. The man who never makes mistakes never
+makes anything. The only point the wise man guards is not to make the
+same mistake twice; the first time never counts with the successful man.
+He both forgives and forgets that. One difference between the wise man
+and the foolish one!</p>
+
+<p>It has been truly said that Watt seemed to have divined all the
+possibilities of steam. We have a notable instance of this in a letter
+of this period (March, 1769) to his friend, Professor Small, in which he
+anticipated Trevithick's use of high-pressure steam in the locomotive.
+Watt said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I intend in many cases to employ the expansive force of steam to
+press on the piston, or whatever is used instead of one, in the
+same manner as the weight of the atmosphere is now employed in
+common fire engines. In some cases I intend to use both the
+condenser and this force of steam, so that the powers of these
+engines will as much exceed those pressed only by the air, as
+the expansive power of the steam is greater than the weight of
+the atmosphere. In other cases, when plenty of cold water cannot
+be had, I intend to work the engines by the force of steam only,
+and to discharge it into the air by proper outlets after it has
+done its office.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In these days patents could be very easily blocked, as Watt experienced
+with his improved crank motion. He proceeded therefore in great secrecy
+to erect the first large engine under his patent, after he had
+successfully made a very small one for trial. An outhouse near one of
+Dr. Roebuck's pits was selected as away <span class="pagenum">Pg. 77</span>from prying eyes. The parts for
+the new engine were partly supplied from Watt's own works in Glasgow and
+partly from the Carron works. Here the old trouble, lack of competent
+mechanics, was again met with. On his return from necessary absences,
+the men were usually found in face of the unexpected and wondering what
+to do next. As the engine neared completion, Watt's anxiety "for his
+approaching doom," he writes, kept him from sleep, his fears being equal
+to his hopes. He was especially sensitive and discouraged by unforeseen
+expenditure, while his sanguine partner, Roebuck, on the contrary,
+continued hopeful and energetic, and often rallied his pessimistic
+partner on his propensity to look upon the dark side. He was one of
+those who adhered to the axiom, "Never bid the devil good-morning till
+you meet him." Smiles believes that it is probable that without
+Roebuck's support Watt could never have gone on, but that may well be
+doubted. His anxieties probably found a needed vent in their expression,
+and left the indomitable do-or-die spirit in all its power. Watt's
+brain, working at high pressure, needed a safety valve. Mrs. Roebuck,
+wife-like, very properly entertained the usual opinion of devoted wives,
+that her husband was really the essential man upon whom the work
+devolved, and, that without him nothing could have been accomplished.
+Smiles probably founded his remark upon her words to Robison: "Jamie
+(Watt) is a queer lad, and, without the Doctor <span class="pagenum">Pg. 78</span>(her husband), his
+invention would have been lost. He won't let it perish." The writer
+knows of a business organisation in which fond wives of the partners
+were all full of dear Mrs. Roebuck's opinion. At one time, according to
+them, the sole responsibility rested upon three of four of these
+marvellous husbands, and never did any of the confiding consorts ever
+have reason to feel that their friend did not share to the fullest
+extent the highly praiseworthy opinion formed of his partners by their
+loving wives. The rising smile was charitably suppressed. In extreme
+cases a suggested excursion to Europe at the company's expense, to
+relieve Chester from the cruel strain, and enable him to receive the
+benefit of a wife's care and ever needful advice, was remarkably
+effective, the wife's fears that Chester's absence would prove ruinous
+to the business being overcome at last, though with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>Due allowance must be made for Mrs. Roebuck's view of the situation.
+There can be no doubt whatever, that Mr. Roebuck's influence,
+hopefulness and courage were of inestimable value at this period to the
+over-wrought and anxious inventor. Watt was not made of malleable stuff,
+and, besides, he was tied to his mission. He was bound to obey his
+genius.</p>
+
+<p>The monster new engine, upon which so much depended, was ready for trial
+at last in September, 1769. About six months had been spent in its
+construction. <span class="pagenum">Pg. 79</span>Its success was indifferent. Watt had declared it to be a
+"clumsy job." The new pipe-condenser did not work well, the cylinder was
+almost useless, having been badly cast, and the old difficulty in
+keeping the piston-packing tight remained. Many things were tried for
+packing&mdash;cork, oiled rags, old hats (felt probably), paper, horse dung,
+etc., etc. Still the steam escaped, even after a thorough overhauling.
+The second experiment also failed. So great is the gap between the small
+toy model and the practical work-performing giant, a rock upon which
+many sanguine theoretical inventors have been wrecked! Had Watt been one
+of that class, he could never have succeeded. Here we have another proof
+of the soundness of the contention that Watt, the mechanic, was almost
+as important as Watt the inventor.</p>
+
+<p>Watt remained as certain as ever of the soundness of his inventions.
+Nothing could shake his belief that he had discovered the true
+scientific mode of utilising steam. His failures lay in the
+impossibility of finding mechanics capable of accurate workmanship.
+There were none such at Carron, nor did he then know of any elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>Watt's letter to his friend, Dr. Small, at this juncture, is
+interesting. He writes:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>You cannot conceive how mortified I am with this disappointment.
+It is a damned thing for a man to have his all hanging by a
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 80</span>single string. If I had wherewithal to pay the loss, I don't
+think I should so much fear a failure; but I cannot bear the
+thought of other people becoming losers by my schemes; and I
+have the happy disposition of always painting the worst.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Watt's timidity and fear of money matters generally have been already
+noted. He had the Scotch peasant's horror of debt&mdash;anything but that.
+This probably arises from the fact that the trifling sums owing by the
+poor to their poor neighbors who have kindly helped them in distress are
+actually needed by these generous friends for comfortable existence. The
+loss is serious, and this cuts deeply into grateful hearts. The
+millionaire's downfall, with large sums owing to banks, rich
+money-lenders, and wealthy manufacturers, really amounts to little. No
+one actually suffers, since imprisonment for debt no longer exists;
+hence "debt" means little to the great operator, who neither suffers
+want himself by failure nor entails it upon others.</p>
+
+<p>To Watt, pressing pecuniary cares were never absent, and debt added to
+these made him the most afflicted of men. Besides this, he says, he had
+been cheated and was "unlucky enough to know." Wise man! ignorance in
+such cases is indeed bliss. We should almost be content to be cheated as
+long as we do not find it out.</p>
+
+<p>It was at such a crisis as this that another cloud, and a dark one,
+came. The sanguine, enterprising, kindly <span class="pagenum">Pg. 81</span>Roebuck was in financial
+straits. His pits had been much troubled by water, which no existing
+machinery could pump out. He had hoped that the new engine would prove
+successful and sufficiently powerful in time to avert the drowning of
+the pits, but this hope had failed. His embarrassments were so pressing
+that he was unable to pay the cost of the engine patent, according to
+agreement, and Watt had to borrow the money for this from that
+never-failing friend, Professor Black. Long may his memory be gratefully
+remembered. Watt had the delightful qualities which attracted friends,
+and those of the highest and best character, but among them all, though
+more than one might have been willing, none were both able and willing
+to sustain him in days of trouble except the famous discoverer of latent
+heat. When we think of Watt, we picture him holding Black by the one
+hand and Small by the other, repeating to them</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I think myself in nothing else so happy<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As in a soul remembering my dear friends."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The patent was secured&mdash;so much to the good&mdash;but Watt had already spent
+too much time upon profitless work, at least more time than he could
+afford. His duty to provide for the frugal wants of his family became
+imperative. "I had," he said, "a wife and children, and I saw myself
+growing gray without having any settled way of providing for them." He
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 82</span>turned again to surveying and prospered, for few such men as Watt were
+to be found in those days, or in any day. With a record of Watt's work
+as surveyor, engineer, councillor, etc., our readers need not be
+troubled in detail. It should, however, be recorded that the chief canal
+schemes in Scotland in this, the day of canals for internal commerce,
+preceding the day of railroads that was to come, were entrusted to Watt,
+who continued to act as engineer for the Monkland Canal. While Watt was
+acting as engineer for this (1770-72), Dr. Small wrote him that he and
+Boulton had been talking of moving canal boats by the steam engine on
+the high-pressure principle. In his reply, September 30, 1770, Watt
+asks, "Have you ever considered a spiral oar for that purpose, or are
+you for two wheels?" To make his meaning quite plain, he gives a rough
+sketch of the screw propeller, with four turns as used to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the idea of the screw propeller to be worked by his own improved
+engine was propounded by Watt one hundred and thirty-five years ago.</p>
+
+<p>This is a remarkable letter, and a still more remarkable sketch, and
+adds another to the many true forecasts of future development made by
+this teeming brain.</p>
+
+<p>Watt also made a survey of the Clyde, and reported upon its proposed
+deepening. His suggestions remained unacted upon for several years, when
+the work <span class="pagenum">Pg. 83</span>was begun, and is not ended even in our day, of making a trout
+and salmon stream into one of the busiest, navigable highways of the
+world. This year further improvements have been decided upon, so that
+the monsters of our day, with 16,000-horse-power turbine engines, may be
+built near Glasgow. Watt also made surveys for a canal between Perth and
+Coupar Angus, for the well-known Crinan Canal and other projects in the
+Western Highlands, as also for the great Caledonian and the Forth and
+Clyde Canals.</p>
+
+<p>The Perth Canal was forty miles long through a rough country, and took
+forty-three days, for which Watt's fee, including expenses, was $400.
+Labor, even of the highest kind, was cheap in those times. We note his
+getting thirty-seven dollars for plans of a bridge over the Clyde. Watt
+prepared plans for docks and piers at Port Glasgow and for a new harbor
+at Ayr. His last and most important engineering work in Scotland was the
+survey of the Caledonian Canal, made in the autumn of 1773, through a
+district then without roads. "An incessant rain kept me," he writes,
+"for three days as wet as water could make me. I could scarcely preserve
+my journal book."</p>
+
+<p>Suffice it to note that he saved enough money to be able to write,
+"Supposing the engine to stand good for itself, I am able to pay all my
+debts and some little <span class="pagenum">Pg. 84</span>thing more, so that I hope in time to be on a par
+with the world."</p>
+
+<hr class="half" />
+
+<p>We are now to make one of the saddest announcements saving dishonor that
+it falls to man to make. Watt's wife died in childbed in his absence. He
+was called home from surveying the Caledonian Canal. Upon arrival, he
+stands paralysed for a time at the door, unable to summon strength to
+enter the ruined home. At last the door opens and closes and we close
+our eyes upon the scene&mdash;no words here that would not be an offence. The
+rest is silence.</p>
+
+<p>Watt tried to play the man, but he would have been less than man if the
+ruin of his home had not made him a changed man. The recovery of mental
+equipoise proved for a time quite beyond his power. He could do all that
+man could do, "who could do more is none." The light of his life had
+gone out.</p>
+
+<hr class="half" />
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 85</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 86</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter"/>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 87</div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<p class="center subtitle smcap">Boulton Partnership</p>
+
+<p>After Watt was restored to himself the first subject which we find
+attracting him was the misfortunes of Roebuck, whose affairs were now in
+the hands of his creditors. "My heart bleeds for him," says Watt, "but I
+can do nothing to help him. I have stuck by him, indeed, until I have
+hurt myself." Roebuck's affairs were far too vast to be affected by all
+that Watt had or could have borrowed. For the thousand pounds Watt had
+paid on Roebuck's account to secure the patent, he was still in debt to
+Black. This was subsequently paid, however, with interest, when Watt
+became prosperous.</p>
+
+<p>We now bid farewell to Roebuck with genuine regret. He had proved
+himself a fine character throughout, just the kind of partner Watt
+needed. It was a great pity that he had to relinquish his interest in
+the patent, when, as we shall see, it would soon have saved him from
+bankruptcy and secured him a handsome competence. He must ever rank as
+one of the men almost indispensable to Watt in the development of his
+engine, and a dear, true friend.</p>
+
+<p>The darkest hour comes before the dawn, and so it <span class="pagenum">Pg. 88</span>proved here. As
+Roebuck retired, there appeared a star of hope of the first magnitude,
+in no less a person than the celebrated Matthew Boulton of Birmingham,
+of whom we must say a few words by way of introduction to our readers,
+for in all the world there was not his equal as a partner for Watt, who
+was ever fortunate in his friends. Of course Watt was sure to have
+friends, for he was through and through the devoted friend himself, and
+won the hearts of those worth winning. "If you wish to make a friend, be
+one," is the sure recipe.</p>
+
+<p>Boulton was not only obviously the right man but he came from the right
+place, for Birmingham was the headquarters of mechanical industry. At
+this time, 1776, there was at last a good road to London. As late as
+1747 the coach was advertised to run there in two days only "if the
+roads permit."</p>
+
+<p>If skilled mechanics, Watt's greatest need, were to be found anywhere,
+it was here in the centre of mechanical skill, and especially was it in
+the celebrated works of Boulton, which had been bequeathed from worthy
+sire to worthy son, to be largely extended and more than ever
+pre&euml;minent.</p>
+
+<p>Boulton left school early to engage in his father's business. When only
+seventeen years old, he had made several improvements in the manufacture
+of buttons, watch chains, and various trinkets, and had invented the
+inlaid steel buckles, which became so <span class="pagenum">Pg. 89</span>fashionable. It is stated that in
+that early day it was found necessary to export them in large quantities
+to France to be returned and sold in Britain as the latest productions
+of French skill and taste. It is well to get a glimpse of human nature
+as seen here. Fashion decides for a time with supreme indifference to
+quality. It is a question of the name.</p>
+
+<p>At his father's death, the son inherited the business. Great credit
+belongs to him for unceasingly laboring to improve the quality of his
+products and especially to raise the artistic standard, then so low as
+to have already caused "Brummagem" to become a term of reproach. He not
+only selected the cleverest artisans, but he employed the best artists,
+Flaxman being one, to design the artistic articles produced. The natural
+result followed. Boulton's work soon gained high reputation. New and
+larger factories became necessary, and the celebrated Soho works arose
+in 1762. The spirit in which Boulton pursued business is revealed in a
+letter to his partner at Soho from London. "The prejudice that
+Birmingham hath so justly established against itself makes every fault
+conspicuous in all articles that have the least pretensions to taste."
+It may interest American readers familiar with One Dollar watches,
+rendered possible by production upon a large scale, that it was one of
+Boulton's leading ideas in that early day that articles in common use
+could be produced much better and cheaper "if manufactured <span class="pagenum">Pg. 90</span>by the help
+of the best machinery upon a large scale, and this could be successfully
+done in the making of clocks and timepieces." He promptly erected the
+machinery and started this new branch of business. Both King and Queen
+received him cordially and became his patrons. Soho works soon became
+famous and one of the show places of the country; princes, philosophers,
+poets, authors and merchants from foreign lands visited them and were
+hospitably received by Boulton.</p>
+
+<p>He was besieged with requests to take gentlemen apprentices into the
+works, hundreds of pounds sometimes being offered as premium, but he
+resolutely declined, preferring to employ boys whom he could train up as
+workmen. He replies to a gentleman applicant, "I have built and
+furnished a house for the reception of one class of
+apprentices&mdash;fatherless children, parish apprentices, and hospital boys;
+and gentlemen's sons would probably find themselves out of place in such
+companionship."</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be inferred that Boulton grew up an uncultured man because
+he left school very early. On the contrary, he steadily educated
+himself, devoting much time to study, so that with his good looks,
+handsome presence, the manners of the gentleman born, and knowledge much
+beyond the average of that class, he had little difficulty in winning
+for his wife a lady of such position in the county as led to some
+opposition <span class="pagenum">Pg. 91</span>on the part of members of her family to the suitor, but only
+"on account of his being in trade." There exists no survival of this
+objection in these days of American alliances with heirs of the highest
+British titles. We seem now to have as its substitute the condition that
+the father of the bride must be in trade and that heavily and to some
+purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Boulton, like most busy men, had time, and an open mind, for new ideas.
+None at this time interested him so deeply as that of the steam engine.
+Want of water-power proved a serious difficulty at Soho. He wrote to a
+friend, "The enormous expense of the horse-power" (it was also irregular
+and sometimes failed) "put me upon thinking of turning the mill by fire.
+I made many fruitless experiments on the subject."</p>
+
+<p>Boulton wrote Franklin, February 22, 1766, in London, about this, and
+sent a model he had made. Franklin replies a month later, apologising
+for the delay on account of "the hurry and anxiety I have been engaged
+in with our American affairs."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Tamer of lightning and tamer of steam, Franklin and Watt&mdash;one of the
+new, the other of the old <span class="pagenum">Pg. 92</span>branch of our English-speaking
+race&mdash;co-operating in enlarging the powers of man and pushing forward
+the chariot of progress&mdash;fit subject, this, for the sculptor and
+painter!</p>
+
+<p>How much further the steam engine is to be the hand-maid of electricity
+cannot be told, for it seems impossible to set limits to the future
+conquests of the latter, which is probably destined to perform miracles
+un-dreamt of to-day, perhaps coupled in some unthought-of way, with
+radium, the youngest sprite of the weird, uncanny tribe of mysterious
+agents. Uranium, the supposed basis of the latest discovery, Radium, has
+only one-millionth part of the heat of the latter. The slow-moving earth
+takes twenty-four hours to turn upon its axis. Radium covers an equal
+distance while we pronounce its name. One and one-quarter seconds, and
+twenty-five thousand miles are traversed. Puck promises to put his
+"girdle round the earth in forty minutes." Radium would pass the fairy
+girdlist in the spin round sixteen hundred times. Thus truth, as it is
+being evolved in our day, becomes stranger than the wildest imaginings
+of fiction. Our century seems on the threshold of discoveries and
+advances, not less revolutionary, perhaps more so, than those that have
+sprung from steam and electricity. "Canst thou send lightnings to say
+'Lo, here I am'?" silenced man. It was so obviously beyond his power
+until last century. Now he smiles as he reads the question. Is Tyndal's
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 93</span>prophecy to be verified that "the potency of all things is yet to be
+found in matter"?</p>
+
+<p>We may be sure the searching, restless brains of Franklin and Watt would
+have been meditating upon strange things these days if they were now
+alive.</p>
+
+<p>Boulton is entitled to rank, so far as the writer knows, as the first
+man in the world worthy to wear Carlyle's now somewhat familiar title,
+"Captain of Industry" for he was in his day foremost in the industrial
+field, and before that, industrial organisations had not developed far
+enough to create or require captains, in Carlyle's sense.</p>
+
+<p>Roebuck, while Watt's partner, was one of Boulton's correspondents, and
+told him of Watt's progress with the model engine which proved so
+successful. Boulton was deeply interested, and expressed a desire that
+Watt should visit him at Soho. This he did, on his return from a visit
+to London concerning the patent. Boulton was not at home, but his
+intimate friend, Dr. Small, then residing at Birmingham, a scientist and
+philosopher, whom Franklin had recommended to Boulton, took Watt in
+charge. Watt was amazed at what he saw, for this was his first meeting
+with trained and skilled mechanics, the lack of whom had made his life
+miserable. The precision of both tools and workmen sank deep. Upon a
+subsequent visit, he met the captain himself, his future partner, and of
+course, as like draws to like, they drew to each other, a case of <span class="pagenum">Pg. 94</span>mutual
+liking at first sight. We meet one stranger, and stranger he remains to
+the end of the chapter. We meet another, and ere we part he is a kindred
+soul. Magnetic attraction is sudden. So with these two, who, by a kind
+of free-masonry, knew that each had met his affinity. The Watt engine
+was exhaustively canvassed and its inventor was delighted that the
+great, sagacious, prudent and practical manufacturer should predict its
+success as he did. Shortly after this, Professor Robison visited Soho,
+which was a magnet that attracted the scientists in those days. Boulton
+told him that he had stopped work upon his proposed pumping engine. "I
+would necessarily avail myself of what I learned from Mr. Watt's
+conversation, and this would not be right without his consent."</p>
+
+<p>It is such a delicate sense of honor as is here displayed that marks the
+man, and finally makes his influence over others commanding in business.
+It is not sharp practice and smart bargaining that tell. On the
+contrary, there is no occupation in which not only fair but liberal
+dealing brings greater reward. The best bargain is that good for both
+parties. Boulton and Watt were friends. That much was settled. They had
+business transactions later, for we find Watt sending a package
+containing "one dozen German flutes" (made of course by him in Glasgow),
+"at 5s. each, and a copper digester, <i>&pound;</i>1:10." Boulton's people probably
+wished samples.</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 95</div>
+<p>Much correspondence followed between Dr. Small and Watt, the latter
+constantly expressing the wish that Mr. Boulton could be induced to
+become partner with himself and Roebuck in his patents. Naturally the
+sagacious manufacturer was disinclined to associate himself with Mr.
+Roebuck, then in financial straits, but the position changed when he had
+become bankrupt and affairs were in the hands of creditors. Watt
+therefore renewed the subject and agreed to go and settle in Birmingham,
+as he had been urged to do. Roebuck's pitiable condition he keenly felt,
+and had done everything possible to ameliorate.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>What little I can do for him 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. I shall be content
+to hold a very small share in the partnership, 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.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Thus wrote Watt to his friend Small, August 30, 1772. Small's reply
+pointed out one difficulty which deserves notice and commendation. "It
+is impossible 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." This is an objection which to
+stock-exchange standards may seem "not well taken," and far too
+fantastical for <span class="pagenum">Pg. 96</span>the speculative domain, and yet it is neither surprising
+nor unusual in the realms of genuine business, in which men are
+concerned with or creating only intrinsic values.</p>
+
+<p>The result so ardently desired by Watt was reached in this unexpected
+fashion. It was found that in the ordinary course of business Roebuck
+owed Boulton a balance of $6,000. Boulton agreed to take the Roebuck
+interest in the Watt patent for the debt. As the creditors considered
+the patent interest worthless, they gladly accepted. As Watt said, "it
+was only paying one bad debt with another."</p>
+
+<p>Boulton asked Watt to act as his attorney in the matter, which he did,
+writing Boulton that "the thing is now a shadow; 'tis merely ideal, and
+will cost time and money to realise it." This as late as March 29, 1773,
+after eight years of constant experimentation, with many failures and
+disappointments, since the discovery of the separate condenser in 1765,
+which was then hailed, and rightly so, as the one thing needed. It
+remained the right and only foundation upon which to develop the steam
+engine, but many minor obstacles intervened, requiring Watt's inventive
+and mechanical genius to overcome.</p>
+
+<p>The transfer of Roebuck's two-third interest to Boulton afterward
+carried with it the formation of the celebrated firm of Boulton and
+Watt. The latter arranged his affairs as quickly as possible. He had
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 97</span>only made $1,000 for a whole year spent in surveying, and part of that
+he gave to Roebuck in his necessity, "so that I can barely support
+myself and keep untouched the small sum I have allotted for my visit to
+you." (Watt to Small, July 25, 1773). This is pitiable indeed&mdash;Watt
+pressed for money to pay his way to Birmingham upon important business.</p>
+
+<p>The trial engine was shipped from Kinneil to Soho and Watt arrived in
+May, 1774, in Birmingham. Here a new life opened before him, still
+enveloped in clouds, but we may please ourselves by believing that
+through these the wearied and harassed inventor did not fail to catch
+alluring visions of the sun. Let us hope he remembered the words of the
+beautiful hymn he had no doubt often sung in his youth:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The clouds ye so much dread<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Are big with mercy, and shall break<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With blessings on your head."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Partnership requires not duplicates, but opposites&mdash;a union of different
+qualities. He who proves indispensable as a partner to one man might be
+wholly useless, or even injurious, to another. Generals Grant and
+Sherman needed very different chiefs of staff. One secret of Napoleon's
+success arose from his being free to make his own appointments, choosing
+the men who had the qualities which supplemented his and cured his own
+shortcomings, for every man has shortcomings. <span class="pagenum">Pg. 98</span>The universal genius who
+can manage all himself has yet to appear. Only one with the genius to
+recognise others of different genius and harness them to his own car can
+approach the "universal." It is a case of different but co&ouml;perating
+abilities, each part of the complicated machine fitting into its right
+place, and there performing its duty without jarring.</p>
+
+<p>Never were two men more "supplementary" to each other than Boulton and
+Watt, and hence their success. One possessed in perfection the qualities
+the other lacked. Smiles sums this up so finely that we must quote him:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>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&mdash;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. <i>For there is a poetic
+as well as a commonplace side to business; <span class="pagenum">Pg. 99</span>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.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This tells the whole story, and once again reminds us that without
+imagination and something of the romantic element, little great or
+valuable is to be done in any field. He "runs his business as if it were
+a romance," was said upon one occasion. The man who finds no element of
+romance in his occupation is to be pitied. We know how radically
+different Watt was in his nature to Boulton, whose judgment of men was
+said to be almost unerring. He recognised in Watt at their first
+interview, not only the original inventive genius, but the
+indefatigable, earnest, plodding and thorough mechanic of tenacious
+grip, and withal a fine, modest, true man, who hated bargaining and all
+business affairs, who cared nothing for wealth beyond a very modest
+provision for old age, and who was only happy if so situated that
+without anxiety for money to supply frugal wants, he could devote his
+life to the development of the steam engine. Thus auspiciously started
+the new firm.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>But Boulton was more than a man of business, continues Smiles;
+he was a man of culture, and the friend of educated 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, a
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 100</span>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 afterward joined the Soho circle,
+not the least distinguished of whom were Joseph Priestley and
+James Watt.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The first business in hand was the reconstruction of the engine brought
+from Kinneil, which upon trial performed much better than before, wholly
+on account of the better workmanship attainable at Soho; but there still
+recurs the unceasing complaint that runs throughout the long eight years
+of trial&mdash;lack of accurate tools and skilled workmen, the difference in
+accuracy between the blacksmith standard and that of the
+mathematical-instrument maker. Watt and Boulton alike agreed that the
+inventions were scientifically correct and needed only proper
+construction. In our day it is not easy to see the apparently
+insuperable difficulty of making anything to scale and perfectly
+accurate, but we forget what the world of Watt was and how far we have
+advanced since.</p>
+
+<p>Watt wrote to his father at Greenock, November, 1774: "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." <span class="pagenum">Pg. 101</span>This is as is usual with the Scotch
+in speech, in a low key and extremely modest, on a par with the verdict
+rendered by the Dunfermline critic who had ventured to attend "the
+playhouse" in Edinburgh to see Garrick in Hamlet&mdash;"no bad." The truth
+was that, so pronounced were the results of proper workmanship, coupled
+with some of those improvements which Watt was constantly devising, the
+engine was so satisfactory as to set both Boulton and Watt to thinking
+about the patent which protected the invention. Six of the fourteen
+years for which it was granted had already passed. Some years would
+still be needed to ensure its general use, and it was feared that before
+the patent expired little return might be received. Much interest was
+aroused by the successful trial. Enquiries began to pour in for pumping
+engines for mines. The Newcomen had proved inadequate to work the mines
+as they became deeper, and many were being abandoned in consequence. The
+necessity for a new power had set many ingenious men to work besides
+Watt, and some of these were trying to adopt Watt's principles while
+avoiding his patent. Hatley, one of Watt's workmen upon the trial engine
+at the Carron works, had stolen and sold the drawings.</p>
+
+<p>All this put Boulton and Watt on their guard, and the former hesitated
+to build the new works intended for the manufacture of steam engines
+upon a large scale with improved machinery. An extension <span class="pagenum">Pg. 102</span>of the patent
+seemed essential, and to secure this Watt proceeded to London and spent
+some time there, busy in his spare moments visiting the mathematical
+instrument shops of his youth, and attending to numerous commissions
+from Boulton. A second visit was paid to London, during which the sad
+intelligence of the death of his dear friend, Dr. Small, reached him. In
+the bitterness of his grief, Boulton writes him: "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's sympathetic reply reminds Boulton of the sentiments held by their
+departed friend&mdash;that, instead of indulging in unavailing sorrow, the
+best refuge is the more sedulous performance of duties. "Come, my dear
+sir," he writes, "and immerse yourself in this sea of business as soon
+as possible. Pay a proper respect to your friend by obeying his
+precepts. No endeavour of mine shall be wanting to make life agreeable
+to you."</p>
+
+<p>Beautiful partnership this, not only of business, but also entering into
+the soul close and deep, comprehending all of life and all we know of
+death.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Small, born 1734, was a Scot, who went to Williamsburg
+University, Virginia, as Professor of mathematics and natural
+philosophy. Thomas Jefferson was among his pupils. His health suffered,
+and he returned to the old home. Franklin introduced him to Boulton,
+writing (May 22, 1765):</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 103</div>
+<blockquote><p>I beg leave to introduce my friend Doctor Small to your
+acquaintance, and to recommend him to your civilities. I would
+not take this freedom if I were not sure it would be agreeable
+to you; and that you will thank me for adding to the number of
+those who from their knowledge of you must respect you, one who
+is both an ingenious philosopher and a most worthy, honest man.
+If anything new in magnetism or electricity, or any other branch
+of natural knowledge, has occurred to your fruitful genius since
+I last had the pleasure of seeing you, you will by communicating
+it greatly oblige me.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This man must have been one of the finest characters revealed in Watt's
+life. Altho he left little behind him to ensure permanent remembrance,
+the extraordinary tributes paid his memory by friends establish his
+right to high rank among the coterie of eminent men who surrounded Watt
+and Boulton. Boulton records that "there being nothing which I wish to
+fix in my mind so permanently as the remembrance of my dear departed
+friend, I did not delay to erect a memorial in the prettiest but most
+obscure part of my garden, from which you see the church in which he was
+interred." Dr. Darwin contributed the verses inscribed. Upon hearing of
+Small's illness Day hastened from Brussels to be present at the last
+hour.</p>
+
+<p>Keir writes, announcing Small's death to his brother, the Rev. Robert
+Small, in Dundee, "It is needless to say how universally he is lamented;
+for no man ever enjoyed or deserved more the esteem of mankind. We loved
+him with the tenderest affection and shall ever revere his memory."</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 104</div>
+<p>Watt's voluminous correspondence with Professor Small, previous to his
+partnership with Boulton, proves Small at that time to have been his
+intimate friend and counsellor. We scarcely know in all literature of a
+closer union between two men. Many verses of Tennyson's Memorial to
+Hallam could be appropriately applied to their friendship. Watt did not
+apparently give way to lamentations as Boulton and others did who were
+present at Small's death, probably because the receipt of Boulton's
+heart-breaking letter impressed Watt with the need of assuming the part
+of comforter to his partner, who was face to face with death, and had to
+bear the direct blow. Watt's tribute to his dear friend came later.</p>
+
+<p>Future operations necessarily depended upon the extension of the patent.
+Boulton, of course, could not proceed with the works. There was as yet
+no agreement between Watt and Boulton beyond joint ownership in the
+patent. At this time, Watt's most intimate friend of youthful years in
+Glasgow University, Professor Robison, was Professor of mathematics in
+the Government Naval School, Kronstadt. He secured for Watt an
+appointment at $5,000 per annum, a fortune to the poor inventor; but
+although this would have relieved him from dependence upon Boulton, and
+meant future affluence, he declined, alleging that "Boulton's favours
+were so gracefully conferred that dependence on him was not felt." <span class="pagenum">Pg. 105</span>He
+made Watt feel "that the obligation was entirely upon the side of the
+giver." Truly we must canonise Boulton. He was not only the first
+"Captain of Industry," but also a model for all others to follow.</p>
+
+<p>The bill extending the patent was introduced in Parliament February,
+1775. Opposition soon developed. The mining interest was in serious
+trouble owing to the deepening of the mines and the unbearable expense
+of pumping the water. They had looked forward to the Watt engine soon to
+be free of patent rights to relieve them. "No monopoly," was their cry,
+nor were they without strong support, for Edmund Burke pleaded the cause
+of his mining constituents near Bristol.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>We need not follow the discussion that ensued upon the propriety of
+granting the patent extension. Suffice to say it was finally granted for
+a term of twenty-four years, and the path was clear at last. Britain was
+to have probably for the first time great works and new tools specially
+designed for a specialty to be produced upon a large scale. Boulton had
+arranged to pay Roebuck $5,000 out of the first profits from the patent
+in addition to the $6,000 of debt cancelled. He now anticipated payment
+of the thousand, at <span class="pagenum">Pg. 106</span>the urgent request of Roebuck's assignees, giving in
+so doing pretty good evidence of his faith in prompt returns from the
+engines, for which orders came pouring in. New mechanical facilities
+followed, as well as a supply of skilled mechanics.</p>
+
+<p>The celebrated Wilkinson now appears upon the scene, first builder of
+iron boats, and a leading iron-founder of his day, an original Captain
+of Industry of the embryonic type, who began working in a forge for
+three dollars a week. He cast a cylinder eighteen inches in diameter,
+and invented a boring machine which bored it accurately, thus remedying
+one of Watt's principal difficulties. This cylinder was substituted for
+the tin-lined cylinder of the triumphant Kinneil engine. Satisfactory as
+were the results of the engine before, the new cylinder improved upon
+these greatly. Thus Wilkinson was pioneer in iron ships, and also in
+ordering the first engine built at Soho&mdash;truly an enterprising man.
+Great pains were taken by Watt that this should be perfect, as so much
+depended upon a successful start. Many concerns suspended work upon
+Newcomen engines, countermanded orders, or refrained from placing them,
+awaiting anxiously the performance of this heralded wonder, the Watt
+engine. As it approached completion, Watt became impatient to test its
+powers, but the prudent, calm Boulton insisted that not one stroke be
+made until every possible hindrance to successful working had been
+removed. <span class="pagenum">Pg. 107</span>He adds, "then, in the name of God, fall to and do your best."
+Admirable order of battle! It was "Be sure you're right, then go ahead,"
+in the vernacular. Watt acted upon this, and when the trial came the
+engines worked "to the admiration of all." The news of this spread
+rapidly. Enquiries and orders for engines began to flow in. No wonder
+when we read that of thirty engines of former makers in one coal-mining
+district only eighteen were at work. The others had failed. Boulton
+wrote Watt to</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>tell Wilkinson to get a dozen cylinders cast and bored ... I
+have fixed my mind upon making from twelve to fifteen
+reciprocating engines and fifty rotative engines per annum. Of
+all the toys and trinkets we manufacture at Soho, none shall
+take the place of fire-engines in respect of my attention.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The captain was on deck, evidently. Sixty-five engines per
+year&mdash;prodigious for these days&mdash;nothing like this was ever heard of
+before. Two thousand per year is the record of one firm in Philadelphia
+to-day, but let us boast not. Perhaps one hundred and twenty-nine years
+hence will have as great a contrast to show. The day of small factories,
+as of small nations, is past. Increasing magnitude, to which it is hard
+to set a limit, is the order of the day.</p>
+
+<p>So far all was well, the heavy clouds that had so long hovered
+menacingly over Boulton and Watt had been displaced once more by clear
+skies. But no new machinery or new manufacturing business starts <span class="pagenum">Pg. 108</span>without
+accidents, delays and unexpected difficulties. There was necessarily a
+long period of trial and disappointment for which the sanguine partners
+were not prepared. As before, the chief trouble lay in the lack of
+skilled workmen, for although the few original men in Soho were
+remarkably efficient, the increased demand for engines had compelled the
+employment of many new hands, and the work they could perform was sadly
+defective. Till this time, it is to be remembered there had been neither
+slide lathes, planing machines, boring tools, nor any of the many other
+devices which now ensure accuracy. All depended upon the mechanics' eye
+and hand, if mechanics they could be called. Most of the new hands were
+inexpert and much given to drink. Specialisation had to be resorted
+to&mdash;one thing for each workman, in the fashioning of which practice made
+perfect. This system was introduced with success, but the training of
+the men took time. Meanwhile work already turned out and that in
+progress was not up to standard, and this caused infinite trouble. One
+very important engine was "The Bow" for London, which was shipped in
+September. The best of the experts, Joseph Harrison, was sent to
+superintend its erection. Verbal instructions Watt would not depend
+upon; Harrison was supplied in writing with detailed particulars
+covering every possible contingency. Constant communication between them
+was kept up by letter, for the engine <span class="pagenum">Pg. 109</span>did not work satisfactorily, and
+finally Watt himself proceeded to London in November and succeeded in
+overcoming the defects. Harrison's anxieties disabled him, and Boulton
+wrote to Dr. Fordyce, a celebrated doctor of that day, telling him to
+take good care of Harrison, "let the expense be what it will." Watt
+writes Boulton that Harrison must not leave London, as "a relapse of the
+engine would ruin our reputation here and elsewhere." The Bow engine had
+a relapse, however, which happened in this way. Smeaton, then the
+greatest of the engineers, requested Boulton's London agent to take him
+to see the new engine. He carefully examined it, called it a "very
+pretty engine," but thought it too complicated a piece of machinery for
+practical use. There was apparently much to be said for this opinion,
+for we clearly see that Watt was far in advance of his day in mechanical
+requirements. Hence his serious difficulties in the construction of the
+complex engine, and in finding men capable of doing the delicately
+accurate work which was absolutely indispensable for successful working.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving, Smeaton made the engineer a gift of money, which he
+spent in drink. The drunken engineman let the engine run wild, and it
+was thrown completely out of order. The valves&mdash;the part of the
+complicated machine that required the most careful treatment&mdash;were
+broken. He was dismissed, and, repairs being made, the engine worked
+satisfactorily at <span class="pagenum">Pg. 110</span>last. In Watt's life, we meet drunkenness often as a
+curse of the time. We have the satisfaction of knowing that our day is
+much freer from it. We have certainly advanced in the cure of this evil,
+for our working-men may now be regarded as on the whole a steady sober
+class, especially in America, where intemperance has not to be reckoned
+with.</p>
+
+<p>We see the difference between the reconstructed Kinneil engine where
+Boulton's "mathematical instrument maker's" standard of workmanship was
+possible "because his few trained men capable of such work were
+employed." The Kinneil engine, complicated as it was in its parts, being
+thus accurately reconstructed, did the work expected and more. The Bow
+engines and some others of the later period, constructed by ordinary
+workmen capable only of the "blacksmith's" standard of finish, proved
+sources of infinite trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Watt had several cases of this kind to engross his attention, all
+traceable to the one root, lack of the skilled, sober workmen, and the
+tools of precision which his complex (for his day, very complex) steam
+engine required. The truth is that Watt's engine in one sense was born
+before its time. Our class of instrument-making mechanics and several
+new tools should have preceded it; then, the science of the invention
+being sound, its construction would have been easy. The partners
+continued working in the right direction and <span class="pagenum">Pg. 111</span>in the right way to create
+these needful additions and were finally successful, but they found that
+success brought another source of annoyance. Escaping Scylla they struck
+Charybdis. So high did the reputation of their chief workmen rise, that
+they were early sought after and tempted to leave their positions. Even
+the two trained fitters sent to London to cure the Bow engine we have
+just spoken of were offered strong inducements to take positions in
+Russia. Watt writes Boulton, May 3, 1777, that he had just heard a great
+secret to the effect that Carless and Webb were probably going beyond
+sea, $5,000 per year having been offered for six years. They were
+promptly ordered home to Soho and warrants obtained for those who had
+attempted to induce them to abscond (strange laws these days!), "even
+though Carless be a drunken and comparatively useless fellow." Consider
+Watt's task, compelled to attempt the production of his new engines,
+complicated beyond the highest existing standard, without proper tools
+and with such workmen as Carless, whom he was glad to get and determined
+to keep, drunken and useless as he was.</p>
+
+<p>French agents appeared and tried to bribe some of the men to go to Paris
+and communicate Watt's plans to the contractor who had undertaken to
+pump water from the Seine for the supply of Paris. The German states
+sent emissaries for a similar purpose, and Baron <span class="pagenum">Pg. 112</span>Stein was specially
+ordered by his government to master the secret of the Watt engine, to
+obtain working plans, and bring away workmen capable of constructing it,
+the first step taken being to obtain access to the engine-rooms by
+bribing the workmen. All this is so positively stated by Smiles that we
+must assume that he quotes from authentic records. It is clear at all
+events that the attention of other nations was keenly drawn to the
+advent of an agency that promised to revolutionise existing conditions.
+Watt himself, at a critical part of his career (1773), as we have seen,
+had been tempted to accept an offer to enter the imperial service of
+Russia, carrying the then munificent salary of $5,000 per annum. Boulton
+wrote him: "Your going to Russia staggers me.... I wish to advise you
+for the best without regard to self, but I find I love myself so well
+that I should be very sorry to have you go, and I begin to repent
+sounding your trumpet at the Ambassador's."</p>
+
+<p>The imperial family of Russia were then much interested in the Soho
+works. The empress stayed for some time at Boulton's house, "and a
+charming woman she is," writes her host. Here is a glimpse of imperial
+activity and wise attention to what was going on in other lands which it
+was most desirous to transplant to their own. The emperor, and no less
+his wife, evidently kept their eyes open during their travels <span class="pagenum">Pg. 113</span>abroad.
+Imperial progresses we fear are seldom devoted to such practical ends,
+although the present king of Britain and his nephew the German emperor
+would not be blind to such things. It is a strange coincidence that the
+successor of this emperor, Tsar Nicholas, when grand duke, should have
+been denied admission to Soho works. Not that he was personally objected
+to, but that certain people of his suite might not be disinclined to
+take advantage of any new processes discovered. So jealously were
+improvements guarded in these days.</p>
+
+<p>Another source of care to the troubled Watt lay here. Naturally, only a
+few such men had been developed as could be entrusted to go to distant
+parts in charge of fellow-workmen and erect the finished engines. A
+union of many qualities was necessary here. Managers of erection had to
+be managers of men, by far the most complicated and delicate of all
+machinery, exceeding even the Watt engine in complexity. When the rare
+man was revealed, and the engine under his direction had proved itself
+the giant it was reputed, ensuring profitable return upon capital
+invested in works hitherto unproductive, as it often did, the sagacious
+owner would not readily consent to let the engineer leave. He could well
+afford to offer salary beyond the dreams of the worker, to a rider who
+knew his horse and to whom the horse took so kindly. The engineer loved
+<i>his</i> engine, the engine which <i>he</i> had <span class="pagenum">Pg. 114</span>seen grow in the shop under his
+direction and which <i>he</i> had wholly erected.</p>
+
+<p>McAndrew's Song of Steam tells the story of the engineer's devotion to
+his engine, a song which only Kipling in our day could sing. The Scotch
+blood of the MacDonalds was needed for that gem; Kipling fortunately has
+it pure from his mother. McAndrew is homeward bound patting <i>his</i> mighty
+engine as she whirls, and crooning over his tale:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">That minds me of our Viscount loon&mdash;Sir Kenneth's kin&mdash;the chap<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wi' Russia leather tennis-shoon an' spar-decked yachtin'-cap.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I showed him round last week, o'er all&mdash;an' at the last says he:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Damned ijjit! I'd been doon that morn to see what ailed the throws,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Manholin', on my back&mdash;the cranks three inches off my nose.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Romance! Those first-class passengers they like it very well,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Printed an' bound in little books; but why don't poets tell?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I'm sick of all their quirks an' turns&mdash;the loves and doves they dream&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lord, send a man like Robbie Burns to sing the Song o' Steam!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To match wi' Scotia's noblest speech yon orchestra sublime,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whaurto&mdash;uplifted like the Just&mdash;the tail-rods mark the time.<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 115</span>
+<span class="i0">The crank-throws give the double-bass, the feed-pump sobs an' heaves,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An' now the main eccentrics start their quarrel on the sheaves:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her time, her own appointed time, the rocking link-head bides,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till&mdash;hear that note?&mdash;the rod's return whings glimmerin' through the guides.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They're all awa'! True beat, full power, the clangin' chorus goes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Clear to the tunnel where they sit, my purrin' dynamos.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Interdependence absolute, foreseen, ordained, decreed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To work, ye'll note, at any tilt an' every rate o' speed.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fra' skylight lift to furnace-bars, backed, bolted, braced an' stayed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An' singin' like the Mornin' Stars for joy that they are made;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While, out o' touch o' vanity, the sweatin' thrust-block says:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Not unto us the praise, oh man, not unto us the praise!"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now, a' together, hear them lift their lesson&mdash;theirs an' mine:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"Law, Order, Duty an' Restraint, Obedience, Discipline!"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mill, forge an' try-pit taught them that when roarin' they arose,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An' whiles I wonder if a soul was gied them wi' the blows.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh for a man to weld it then, in one trip-hammer strain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till even first-class passengers could tell the meanin' plain!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But no one cares except mysel' that serve an' understand<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My seven-thousand horse-power here. Eh, Lord!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They're grand&mdash;they're grand!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Uplift am I? When first in store the new-made beasties stood,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Were ye cast down that breathed the Word declarin' all things good?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not so! O' that world-liftin' joy no after-fall could vex,<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 116</span>
+<span class="i0">Ye've left a glimmer still to cheer the Man&mdash;the Artifex!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>That</i> holds, in spite o' knock and scale, o' friction, waste an' slip,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An' by that light&mdash;now, mark my word&mdash;we'll build the Perfect Ship.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I'll never last to judge her lines or take her curve&mdash;not I.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But I ha' lived and I ha' worked. Be thanks to Thee, Most High!<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>So the McAndrews of Watt's day were loth to part from <i>their</i> engines,
+this feeling being in the blood of true engineers. On the other hand,
+just such men, in numbers far beyond the supply, were needed by the
+builders, who in one sense were almost if not quite as deeply concerned
+as the owners, in having proved, capable, engine managers remain in
+charge of their engines, thus enhancing their reputation. Endless
+trouble ensued from the lack of managing enginemen, a class which had
+yet to be developed, but which was sure to arise in time through the
+educative policy adopted, which was already indeed slowly producing
+fruit.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, to meet the present situation, Watt resolved to simplify the
+engine, taking a step backward, which gives foundation for Smeaton's
+acute criticism upon its complexity. We have seen that the working of
+steam expansively was one of Watt's early inventions. Some of the new
+engines were made upon this plan, which involved the adoption of some of
+the most troublesome of the machinery. It was <span class="pagenum">Pg. 117</span>ultimately decided that to
+operate this was beyond the ability of the obtainable enginemen of the
+day.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be understood that expansion was abandoned. On the contrary,
+it was again introduced by Watt at a later stage and in better form.
+Since his time it has extended far beyond what he could have ventured
+upon under the conditions of that day. "Yet," as Kelvin says, "the
+triple and quadruple expansion engine of our day all lies in the
+principle Watt had so fully developed in his day."</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> If those in London had only listened to Franklin and taken
+his advice when he pleaded for British liberties for British subjects in
+America! It is refreshing to read in our day how completely the view
+regarding colonies has changed in Britain. These are now pronounced
+"Independent nations, free to go or stay in the empire, as they choose,"
+the very surest way to prolong the connection. This is true
+statesmanship. Being free, the chains become decorations and cease to
+chafe the wearer, unless great growth comes, when the colony must at its
+maturity perforce either merge with the motherland under one joint
+government or become a free and independent nation, giving her sons a
+country of their own for which to live, and, if necessary, to die.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The mention of Burke and Bristol so soon after the note of
+Boulton upon Dr. Small's passing, recalls one of Burke's many famous
+sentences, one perhaps unequalled under the circumstances. The candidate
+opposing him for Parliament died during the canvass. When Burke next
+addressed the people after the sad event, his first words were:
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"What shadows we are; what shadows we pursue."<br /></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 118</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 119</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 120</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 121</div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<p class="center subtitle smcap">Removal to Birmingham</p>
+
+
+<p>Watt's permanent settlement in Birmingham had for some time been seen to
+be inevitable, all his time being needed there. Domestic matters,
+including the care of his two children, with which he had hitherto been
+burdened, pressed hard upon him, and he had been greatly depressed by
+finding his old father quite in his dotage, although he was not more
+than seventy-five. Watt was alone and very unhappy during a visit he
+made to Greenock.</p>
+
+<p>Before returning to Birmingham, he married Miss MacGregor, daughter of a
+Glasgow man of affairs, who was the first in Britain to use chlorine for
+bleaching, the secret of which Berthollet, its inventor, had
+communicated to Watt.</p>
+
+<p>Pending the marriage, it was advisable that the partnership with Boulton
+as hitherto agreed upon should be executed. Watt writes so to Boulton,
+and the arrangement between the partners is indicated by the following
+passage of Watt's letter to him:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>As you may have possibly mislaid my missive to you concerning
+the contract, I beg just to mention what I remember of the
+terms.</p>
+
+<p>1. I to assign to you two-thirds of the property of the
+invention.</p>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 122</div>
+<p>2. You to pay all expenses of the Act or others incurred before
+June, 1775 (the date of the Act), and also the expense of future
+experiments, which money is to be sunk without interest by you,
+being the consideration you pay for your share.</p>
+
+<p>3. You to advance stock-in-trade bearing interest, but having no
+claim on me for any part of that, further than my intromissions;
+the stock itself to be your security and property.</p>
+
+<p>4. I to draw one-third of the profits so soon as any arise from
+the business, after paying the workmen's wages and goods
+furnished, but abstract from the stock-in-trade, excepting the
+interest thereof, which is to be deducted before a balance is
+struck.</p>
+
+<p>5. I to make drawings, give directions, and make surveys, the
+company paying for the travelling expenses to either of us when
+upon engine business.</p>
+
+<p>6. You to keep the books and balance them once a year.</p>
+
+<p>7. A book to be kept wherein to be marked such transactions as
+are worthy of record, which, when signed by both, to have the
+force of the contract.</p>
+
+<p>8. Neither of us to alienate our share of the other, and if
+either of us by death or otherwise shall be incapacitated from
+acting for ourselves, the other of us to be the sole manager
+without contradiction or interference of heirs, executors,
+assignees or others; but the books to be subject to their
+inspection, and the acting partner of us to be allowed a
+reasonable commission for extra trouble.</p>
+
+<p>9. The contract to continue in force for twenty-five years, from
+the 1st of June, 1775, when the partnership commenced,
+notwithstanding the contract being of later date.</p>
+
+<p>10. Our heirs, executors and assignees bound to observance.</p>
+
+<p>11. In case of demise of both parties, our heirs, etc., to
+succeed in same manner, and if they all please, they may burn
+the contract.</p>
+
+<p>If anything be very disagreeable in these terms, you will find
+me disposed to do everything reasonable for your satisfaction.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Boulton's reply was entirely satisfactory, and upon this basis the
+arrangement was closed.</p>
+
+<p>Watt, with his usual want of confidence in himself in business affairs,
+was anxious that Boulton should <span class="pagenum">Pg. 123</span>come to him at Glasgow and arrange all
+pecuniary matters connected with the marriage. Watt had faced the
+daughter and conquered, but trembled at the thought of facing the
+father-in-law. He appeals to his partner as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I am afraid that I shall otherwise make a very bad bargain in
+money matters, which wise men like you esteem the most essential
+part, and I myself, although I be an enamoured swain, do not
+altogether despise. You may perhaps think it odd that in the
+midst of my friends here I should call for your help; but the
+fact is that from several reasons I do not choose to place that
+confidence in any of my friends here that would be necessary in
+such a case, and I do not know any of them that have more to say
+with the gentleman in question than I have myself. Besides, you
+are the only person who can give him satisfactory information
+concerning my situation.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This being impracticable, as explained by Boulton, who thoroughly
+approved of the union, the partnership and Boulton's letter were
+accepted by the judicious father-in-law as satisfactory evidence that
+his daughter's future was secure. Boulton states in his letter, July,
+1776:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>It may be difficult to say what is the value of your property in
+partnership with me. However, I will give it a name, and I do
+say that I would willingly give you two, or perhaps three
+thousand pounds for your assignment of your third part of the
+Act of Parliament. But I should be sorry to make you so bad a
+bargain, or to make any bargain at all that tended to deprive me
+of your friendship, acquaintance, and assistance, hoping that we
+shall harmoniously live to wear out the twenty-five years, which
+I had rather do than gain a Nabob's fortune by being the sole
+proprietor.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This is the kind of expression from the heart to make a partner happy
+and resolve to do his utmost <span class="pagenum">Pg. 124</span>for one who in the recipient's heart had
+transposed positions, and is now friend first, and partner afterward.</p>
+
+<p>The marriage took place in July, 1776. Two children were born, both of
+whom died in youth. Mrs. Watt lived until a ripe old age and enjoyed the
+fruits of her husband's success and fame. She died in 1832. Arago
+praises her, and says "Various talents, sound judgment, and strength of
+mind rendered her a worthy companion."</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult to realise that many yet with us were contemporaries of
+Mrs. Watt, and not a few yet living were contemporaries of Watt himself,
+for he did not pass away until 1819, eighty-six years ago, so much a
+thing of yesterday is the material development and progress of the
+world, which had its basis, start and accomplishment in the steam
+engine.</p>
+
+<p>The reasons given by Boulton for being unable to proceed to the side of
+his friend and partner in Glasgow, shed clear light upon the condition
+of affairs at Soho. Their London agent, like Watt, was also to be
+married and would be absent. Fothergill had to proceed to London. Scale,
+one of the managers, was absent. Important visitors were constantly
+arriving. Said Boulton:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Our copper bottom hath plagued us very much by steam leaks, and
+therefore I have had one cast (with its conducting pipe) all in
+one piece; since which the engine doth not take more than 10
+feet <span class="pagenum">Pg. 125</span>of steam, and I hope to reduce that quantity, as we have
+just received the new piston, which shall be put in and at work
+tomorrow. Our Soho engine never was in such good order as at
+present. Bloomfield and Willey (engines) are both well, and I
+doubt not but Bow engine will be better than any of 'em.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He concludes, "I did not sleep last night, my mind being absorbed by
+steam." Means for increasing the heating surface swept through his mind,
+by applying "in copper spheres within the water," the present flue
+system, also for working steam expansively, "being clear the principle
+is sound."</p>
+
+<p>To add to Boulton's anxieties, he had received a summons to attend the
+Solicitor-General next week in opposition to Gainsborough, a clergyman
+who claimed to be the original inventor. "This is a disagreeable
+circumstance, particularly at this season, when you are absent. Harrison
+is in London and idleness is in our engine shop."</p>
+
+<p>Watt wrote Boulton on July 28, 1776, apologising for his long absence
+and stating he was now ready to return, and would start "Tuesday first"
+for Liverpool, where he expected to meet Boulton. Meanwhile, the latter
+had been called to London by the Gainsborough business. A note from him,
+however, reached Watt at Liverpool, in which he says, "As to your
+absence, say nothing about it. I will forgive it this time, <i>provided
+you promise me never to marry again</i>."</p>
+
+<p>In due time, Mr. and Mrs. Watt arrived and settled early in August,
+1776, in Birmingham, which was <span class="pagenum">Pg. 126</span>hereafter to be their permanent home,
+although, as we shall see, Watt never ceased to keep in close touch with
+his native town of Greenock and his Glasgow friends. His heart still
+warmed to the tartan, the soft, broad Scotch accent never forsook him;
+nor, we may be sure, did the refrain ever leave his heart&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And may dishonour blot our name<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And quench our household fires,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If me or mine forget thy name,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Thou dear land of my Sires,<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Many a famous Scot has the fair South in recent times called to
+her&mdash;Stephenson, Ruskin, Carlyle, Mill, Gladstone and others&mdash;but never
+before or since, one whose work was the transformation of the world.</p>
+
+<p>At last we have Watt permanently settled alongside the great works to
+which he was hereafter to devote his rare abilities until his retirement
+at the expiration of the partnership in 1800. His labors at Soho soon
+began to tell. The works increased their celebrity beyond all others
+then known, for materials, workmanship and invention.</p>
+
+<p>The mines of Cornwall promised to become unworkable; indeed, many
+already had became so. The Newcomen engines could no longer drain the
+deepened mines. Several orders for Watt engines had been received, and
+as much depended upon the success of the first, Watt resolved to
+superintend its erection himself. <span class="pagenum">Pg. 127</span>Mrs. Watt and he started over the
+terrible road into Cornwall, and had to take up their abode with the
+superintendent of the mine, there being no other house for miles around.
+Naturally the builders and attendants of the Newcomen engine viewed
+Watt's invasion of their district with no kindly feelings. Great
+jealousy arose and Watt's sensitive nature was sorely tried. Many
+attempts to thwart him were met with, and, taken altogether, his life in
+Cornwall was far from agreeable.</p>
+
+<p>The engine was erected, the day of trial came, mining men, engineers,
+mining proprietors and others assembled from all quarters to see the
+start. Many of the spectators interested in other engines would not have
+shed tears had it failed, but it started splendidly making eleven
+eight-foot strokes per minute, which broke the record. Three cheers for
+the Scotch engineer! It soon worked with greater power and more
+steadily, and "forked" more water than the ordinary engines with only
+about one-third the consumption of coal. Watt wrote:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I understand all the west country captains are to be here
+tomorrow to see the prodigy. The velocity, violence, magnitude,
+and horrible noise of the engine give universal satisfaction to
+all beholders, believers or not. I have once or twice trimmed
+the engine to end the stroke gracefully and to make less noise,
+but Mr. Wilson cannot sleep without it seems quite furious, so I
+have left it to the enginemen; and, by the by, the noise seems
+to convey great ideas of its power to the ignorant, who seem to
+be no more taken with modest merit in an engine than in a man.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Well said, modest, reserved philosopher with vast <span class="pagenum">Pg. 128</span>horse-power in that
+big head of yours, working in the closet noiselessly, driving deep but
+silently into the bosom of nature's secrets, pumping her deepest mines,
+discovering and bringing to the surface the genius which lay in steam to
+do your bidding and revolutionise life on earth! In this, the first
+triumph, there was recompense for all the trials Watt and his wife had
+endured in Cornwall.</p>
+
+<p>Readers will note that no workman had yet been developed who could be
+trusted to erect the engine. The master inventor had to go himself as
+the mechanical genius certain to cure all defects and ensure success.
+This shows how indispensable Watt was.</p>
+
+<p>Orders now flowed in, and Watt was needed to prepare the plans and
+drawings, no one being capable of relieving him of this. To-day we have
+draftsmen by the thousand to whom it would be easy routine work, as we
+have thousands to whom the erection of the Watt engine would be play.
+Watt was everywhere. At length he had to confess that "a very little
+more of this hurrying and vexation would knock me up altogether." At
+this moment he had just been called to return to Cornwall to erect the
+second engine. He says "I fancy I must be cut in pieces and a portion
+sent to every tribe in Israel." We may picture him reciting in
+Falstaffian mood, "Would my name were not so terrible to the enemy
+(deep-mine water) as it is. There can't a drowned-out mine peep its head
+out but I'm thrust <span class="pagenum">Pg. 129</span>upon it. Well, well, it always was the trick of my
+countrymen to make a good thing too common. Better rust to death than be
+scoured to nothing by this perpetual motion."</p>
+
+<p>Watt had a hard time of it in Cornwall during his next stay there, for
+he had to go again. He arrives at Redruth to find many troubles.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Forbes' eduction-pipe is a vile job, he writes, and full of
+holes. The cylinder they have cast for Chacewater is still
+worse, for it will hardly do at all. The Soho people have sent
+here Chacewater pipe instead of Wheal Union, and the gudgeon
+pipe has not arrived with the nozzles. These repeated
+disappointments will ruin our credit in the country, and I
+cannot stay here to bear the shame of such failures of promise.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It is easy for present-day captains of industry to plume themselves upon
+their ability to select men sure to succeed well with any undertaking,
+and assume that Watt lacked the indispensable talent for selection, but
+he had been driven by sad experience to trust none but himself, the
+skilled workmen needed to co-operate with him not yet having been
+developed.</p>
+
+<p>We have not touched upon another source of great anxiety to him at this
+time. The enterprising Boulton would not have been the organiser he was
+unless blessed with a sanguine disposition and the capacity for shedding
+troubles. The business was rapidly extending in many branches, all
+needing capital; the engine business, promising though it was, was no
+exception. Little money was yet due from sales and much had been <span class="pagenum">Pg. 130</span>spent
+developing the invention. Boulton's letter to Watt constantly urged cash
+collections, while mine-owners were not disposed to pay until further
+tests were made. Boulton suggested loans from Truro bankers on security
+of the engines, but Watt found this impracticable. The engines were
+doing astonishingly well to-day, but who could ensure their lasting
+qualities? Watt shows good judgment in suggesting that Wilkinson, the
+famous foundryman, should be taken into partnership. He urges his
+enterprising partner to apply the pruning knife and cut down expenses
+naively assuring him that "he was practising all the frugality in his
+power." As Watt's personal expenses then were only ten dollars per week,
+a smile rises at the prudent Scot's possible contribution to reduction
+in expenditure. But he was on the right lines, and at least gave Boulton
+the benefit of example. Watt was never disposed to look on the bright
+side of things, and to add to Boulton's load, the third partner,
+Fothergill, was even more desponding than Watt. When Boulton went away
+to raise means, he was pursued by letters from Fothergill telling him
+day by day of imperative needs. In one he was of opinion that "the
+creditors must be called together; better to face the worst than to go
+on in the neck-and-neck race with ruin." Boulton would hurry back to
+quiet Fothergill and keep the ship afloat. Here he shines out
+resplendently. He proved equal to the emergency. <span class="pagenum">Pg. 131</span>His courage and
+determination rose in proportion to the difficulties to be overcome,
+borne up by his invariable hope and unshakable belief in the value of
+Watt's condensing engine, he triumphed at last, pledging, as security
+for a loan of $70,000, the royalties derivable from the engine patents,
+and an annuity for a loan of $35,000 more. So small a sum as $105,000
+sufficed to keep afloat the big ship laden with all their treasures.</p>
+
+<p>There was a period of great depression in Britain when Boulton and Watt
+were thus in deep water, and at such times credit is sensitive in the
+extreme. A small balance on the right side performs wonders. This
+recalls to the writer how, once in the history of his own firm, credit
+was kept high during a panic by using the identical sum Boulton raised,
+$70,000, from a reserve fund that had been laid away and came in very
+opportunely at the critical time. Every single dollar weighs a
+hundredfold when credit trembles in the balance. A leading nerve
+specialist in New York once said that the worst malady he had to treat
+was the man of affairs whose credit was suspected. His unfailing remedy
+was: "Call your creditors together, explain all and ask their support. I
+can then do you some good, but not till then." His patients who did this
+found themselves restored to vigor. They were supported by creditors and
+all was bright once more. The wise doctor was sound in his <span class="pagenum">Pg. 132</span>advice. If
+the firm has neither speculated nor gambled (synonymous terms), nor
+lived extravagantly, nor endorsed for others, and the business is on a
+solid foundation, no people have so much at stake in sustaining it as
+the creditors; they will rally round it and think more of the firm than
+ever, because they will see behind their money the best of all
+securities&mdash;men at the helm who are not afraid and know how to meet a
+storm.</p>
+
+<p>Boulton's timid partners no doubt were amazed that he was so blind to
+the dangers which they with clearer vision saw so clearly. How deluded
+they were. We may be sure neither of them saw the danger half as vividly
+as he, but it is not the part of a leader to reveal to his fellows all
+that he sees or fears. His part is to look dangers steadily in the face
+and challenge them. It is the great leader who inspires in his followers
+contempt for the danger which he sees in much truer proportion than
+they. This Boulton did, for behind all else in his character there lay
+the indomitable will, the do or die resolve. He had staked his life upon
+the hazard of a die and he would stand the cost. "But if we fail," often
+said the timid pair to him, as Macbeth did to his resolute partner, and
+the same answer came, "<i>We</i> fail." That's all. "One knockdown will not
+finish this fight. We'll get up again, never fear. We know no such word
+as fail."<a name="FNanchor_1_3" id="FNanchor_1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_3" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 133</div>
+<p>One source of serious trouble arose from Watt and Boulton having been so
+anxious at first to introduce their engines that they paid small regard
+to terms. When their success was proved, they offered to settle, taking
+one-third the value of the fuel saved. This was a liberal offer, for, in
+addition to the mine-owners saving two-thirds of the former cost of fuel
+consumed by the previous engines, mines became workable, which without
+the Watt engine must have been abandoned. These terms however were not
+accepted, and a long series of disputes arose, ending in some cases only
+with the patent-right itself. It was resolved that all future engines
+should be furnished only upon the terms before stated, Watt declaring
+that otherwise he would not put pen to paper to make new drawings. "Let
+our terms be moderate," he writes, "and, if possible, consolidated into
+money <i>a priori</i>, and it is certain we shall get <i>some</i> money, enough to
+keep us out of jail, in continual apprehension of which I live at
+present." Imprisonment for debt, let it be remembered, had not been
+abolished. One of the most beneficent forward steps that our time can
+boast of is the <span class="pagenum">Pg. 134</span>Bankruptcy Court. However hard we may yet be upon
+offenders against us, society, through humane laws, forgives our debtors
+in money matters, and gives a clear bill of health after honorable
+acquittal in bankruptcy, and a fresh start.</p>
+
+<p>The result proved Watt's wisdom. His engines were needed to save the
+mines. No other could. Applications came in freely upon his terms, and
+as Watt was a poor hand at bargaining, he insisted that Boulton should
+come to Cornwall and attend to that part.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile great attention was being paid to the works and all pertaining
+to the men and methods. The firm established perhaps the first benefit
+society of workmen. Every one was a member and contributed according to
+his earnings. Out of this fund payments were made to the sick or
+disabled in varying amounts. No member of the Soho Friendly Society,
+except a few irreclaimable drunkards, ever came upon the parish.</p>
+
+<p>When Boulton's son came of age, seven hundred were dined. No
+well-behaved workman was ever turned adrift. Fathers employed introduced
+their sons into the works and brought them up under their own eye,
+watching over their conduct and mechanical training. Thus generation
+after generation followed each other at Soho works.</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion Boulton writes Watt in Cornwall, "I have thought it
+but respectful to give our <span class="pagenum">Pg. 135</span>folks a dinner to-day. There were present
+Murdoch, Lawson, Pearson, Perkins, Malcom, Robert Muir, all Scotchmen,
+John Bull and Wilson and self, for the engines are now all finished and
+the men have behaved well and are attached to us."</p>
+
+<p>Six Scotch and three English in the English works of Soho thought worthy
+of dining with their employer! It was, we may be sure, a very rare
+occurrence in that day, but worthy of the true captain of industry. Here
+is an early "invasion" from the north. We are reminded of Sir Charles
+Dilke's statement in his "Greater Britain," that, in his tour round the
+world, he found ten Scotchmen for every Englishman in high position.
+Owing, of course, to the absence of scope at home the Scot has had to
+seek his career abroad.</p>
+
+<p>A master-stroke this, probably the first dinner of its kind in Britain,
+and no doubt more highly appreciated by the honored guests than an
+advance in wages. Splendid workmen do not live upon wages alone.
+Appreciation felt and shown by their employer, as in this case, is the
+coveted reward.</p>
+
+<p>We have read how Watt was much troubled in Scotland with poor mechanics.
+Not one good craftsman could he then find. After seeing Soho, where the
+standard was much higher, he declared that the Scotch mechanic was very
+much inferior; he was prejudiced against them. Murdoch, however, the
+first Scot at Soho, soon eclipsed all, and no doubt under his wing <span class="pagenum">Pg. 136</span>other
+Scots gained a trial with the result indicated. It is very significant
+that even in the earliest days of the steam engine, Scotchmen should
+exhibit such talent for its construction, forecasting their present
+pre-eminence in marine engineering.</p>
+
+<p>Small wonder that the Soho works became the model for all others. The
+last words in Boulton's letter, "and are attached to us," tell the
+story. No danger of strikes, of lockouts, or quarrels of any kind in
+such establishments as that of Boulton and Watt, who proved that they in
+turn were attached to their men. Mutual attachment between employers and
+employed is the panacea for all troubles&mdash;yes, better than a panacea,
+the preventer of troubles.</p>
+
+<p>After repeated calls from Watt, Boulton took the journey to Cornwall in
+October, 1778, although Fothergill was again uttering lamentable
+prophecies of impending ruin, and the London agent was imploring his
+presence there upon financial matters pressing in the extreme. Boulton
+succeeded in borrowing $10,000 from Truro bankers on the security of
+engines erected, and settled several disputes, getting $3,500 per year
+royalty for one engine and $2,000 per year for another. At last, after
+nine years of arduous labor since the invention was hailed as
+successful, the golden harvest so long expected began to replenish the
+empty treasury. The heavy liabilities, however, remained a source of
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 137</span>constant anxiety. No remedy could be found against "this consumption of
+the purse."</p>
+
+<p>Watt had again to encounter the lack of competent, sober workmen to run
+engines. The Highland blood led him at last into severe measures, and he
+insisted upon discharging two or three of the most drunken. Here Boulton
+had great difficulty in restraining him. Much had to be endured, and
+occasional bouts of drunkenness overlooked, although serious accidents
+resulted. At last two men appeared whose services proved
+invaluable&mdash;Murdoch, already mentioned, and Law&mdash;one of whom became
+famous. Watt was absent when the former called and asked Boulton for
+employment. The young Scot was the son of a well-known millwright near
+Ayr who had made several improvements. His famous son worked with him,
+but being ambitious and hearing of the fame of Boulton and Watt, he
+determined to seek entrance to Soho works and learn the highest order of
+handicraft. Boulton had told him that there was at present no place
+open, but noticing the strange cap the awkward young man had been
+dangling in his hands, he asked what it was made of. "Timmer," said the
+lad. "What, out of wood?" "Yes." "<i>How</i> was it made?" "I turned it
+mysel' in a bit lathey o' my own making." This was enough for that rare
+judge of men. Here was a natural-born mechanic, certain. The young man
+was promptly engaged for two years at fifteen shillings per week when <span class="pagenum">Pg. 138</span>in
+shop, seventeen shillings when abroad, and eighteen shillings when in
+London. His history is the usual march upward until he became his
+employers' most trusted manager in all their mechanical operations.
+While engaged upon one critical job, where the engine had defied
+previous attempts to put it to rights, the people in the house where
+Murdoch lodged were awakened one night by heavy tramping in his room
+over-head. Upon entering, Murdoch was seen in his bed clothes heaving
+away at the bed post in his sleep, calling out "Now she goes, lads, now
+she goes." His heart was in his work. He had a mission, and only one&mdash;to
+make that engine go.</p>
+
+<p>Of course he rose. There's no holding down such a "dreamer" anywhere in
+this world. It was not only that he had zeal, for he had sense with it,
+and was not less successful in conquering the rude Cornishmen who had
+baffled, annoyed and intimidated Watt. He won their hearts. His ability
+did not end with curing the defects of machinery; he knew how to manage
+men. At first he had to depend upon his physical powers. He was an
+athlete not indisposed to lead the strenuous life. He had not been very
+long in Cornwall before half a dozen of the mining captains, a class
+that had tormented poor, retiring and modest Watt, entered the
+engine-room and began their bullying tricks on him. The Scotch blood was
+up, Murdoch quietly locked the door and said to the captains, "Now then
+gentlemen, <span class="pagenum">Pg. 139</span>you shall not leave until we have settled matters once for
+all." He selected the biggest Cornishman and squared off. The contest
+was soon over. Murdoch vanquished the bully and was ready for the next.
+The captains, seeing the kind of man he was, offered terms of peace,
+hands were shaken all round and they parted good friends, and remained
+so. We are past that rude age. The skilled, educated manager of to-day
+can use no weapon so effectively with skilled men as the supreme force
+of gentleness, the manner, language and action of the educated man, even
+to the calm, low voice never raised to passionate pitch. He conquers and
+commands others because he has command of himself.</p>
+
+<p>We must not lose sight of Murdoch. In addition to his rare qualities, he
+possessed mechanical genius. He was the inventor of lighting by gas, and
+it was he who made the first model of a locomotive. There was no
+emergency with engines, no accident, no blunder, but Murdoch was called
+in. We read with surprise that his wages even in 1780 were only five
+dollars per week. He then modestly asked for an advance, but this was
+not given. A present of one hundred dollars, however, was made to him in
+recognition of his unusual services. Probably the explanation of the
+failure to increase his wages at the time was that, owing to the
+condition of the business, no rise in wages could be made to one which
+would involve an <span class="pagenum">Pg. 140</span>advance to others. Murdoch remained loyal to the firm,
+however, although invited into partnership by another. Afterward he
+received due reward. He had always a strong aversion to partnership, no
+doubt well founded in this case, for during many years failure seemed
+almost as likely as success. Watt has much to say in his letters about
+"William" (Murdoch), who, more than anyone, relieved him from
+trouble.<a name="FNanchor_2_4" id="FNanchor_2_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_4" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>The bargainings with mine-owners brought on intense heartaches and broke
+Watt down completely. Boulton had to go to him again in Cornwall in the
+autumn of 1779, and as usual succeeded in adjusting many disputes by
+wise compromises with the grasping owners which Watt's strict sense of
+justice had denied. Many of these had paid no royalties for years,
+others disputed Watt's unerring register of fuel consumption (another of
+his most ingenious inventions now in general use for <span class="pagenum">Pg. 141</span>many purposes), a
+more heinous offense in his eyes than that of non-payment. "The
+rascality of man," he writes, "is almost beyond belief." He never was
+more despondent or more irritable than now. No one was better aware of
+his weakness than himself. In short, his heartaches and nervousness
+unfitted him for business. As usual, he attributed his discouragement
+chiefly to his financial obligations. The firm was as hard pressed as
+ever. Indeed a new source of danger had developed. Fothergill's affairs
+became involved, and had it not been for Boulton's capital and credit,
+the firm of Boulton and Fothergill could not have maintained payment.
+This had caused a drain upon their resources. Boulton sold the estate
+which had come to him by his wife, and the greater part of his father's
+property, and mortgaged the remainder. It is evident that the great
+captain had taken in hand far too many enterprises. Probably he had not
+heard the new doctrine: "Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch
+that basket." He had even ventured considerable sums in blockade running
+during the American Revolutionary War. It was not without good reason,
+therefore, that the more cautious Scot addressed to him so many pathetic
+letters: "I beg of you to attend to these money matters. I cannot rest
+in my bed until they have some determinate form." Watt's inexperience in
+money matters caused apprehensions of ruin to arise whenever financial
+measures were discussed. <span class="pagenum">Pg. 142</span>He was at this time utterly wretched, and Mrs.
+Watt at last became anxious, long and bravely as she had hitherto borne
+up and striven to dispel her husband's fears. Never before had she
+ventured to speak to Boulton upon the subject. She now broke the silence
+and wrote him in Cornwall a touching letter, stating that her husband's
+health and spirits had become much worse since Boulton had left Soho. "I
+know there are several things that so prey upon his mind as to render
+him perfectly miserable. They never cross his mind, but he is rendered
+unfit to do anything for a long time." She describes these financial
+demons that torment him and begs that her writing should not be told to
+Watt, as it might only add to his troubles. The appeal brings Mrs. Watt
+before us in a most engaging light.</p>
+
+<p>A study of the problem was made upon Boulton's return and he agreed to
+close two departments of the business which were so far unprofitable,
+thus entering upon the right path. The engine having proved itself
+indispensable, the demand for it was becoming great and pressing from
+various countries. To concentrate upon its manufacture was obviously the
+true policy. The great captain's enterprise was not often expended upon
+failures, and it is with pleasure we find that among the profitable
+branches which Boulton had encouraged Watt in introducing at Soho, was
+the copying-press, which Watt invented in 1778, and which we use to this
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 143</span>day. In July of that year he writes Dr. Black that he has "lately
+discovered a method of copying writing instantaneously, provided it has
+been written within twenty-four hours. I send you a specimen and will
+impart the secret if it will be of any use to you. It enables me to copy
+all my business letters." He kept this secret for two years, and in May,
+1780, secured a patent after he had completed details of the press and
+experimented with the ink. One hundred and fifty were made and sold.
+Thirty of these went abroad. It steadily made its way. Watt, writing
+some thirty years later, said it had proved so useful to him that it was
+well worth all the trouble of perfecting it, even if it brought no
+profit.</p>
+
+<p>We think of Watt and the steam engine appears. Let us however note the
+unobtrusive little copying-press on the table at his side. Extremes meet
+here. It would be difficult to name an invention more universally used,
+in all offices where man labors in any field of activity. In the list of
+modest inventions of greatest usefulness, the modern copying-press must
+take high rank, and this we owe entirely to Watt.</p>
+
+<p>Of the same period as the copying-machine is his invention of a
+drying-machine for cloth, consisting of three cylinders of copper over
+which the cloth must turn over and under while cylinders are filled with
+steam, the cloth to be alternately wound off and on the two wooden
+rollers, by which means it will pass over three <span class="pagenum">Pg. 144</span>cylinders in succession.
+This machine was erected for Watt's father-in-law, Mr. MacGregor in
+Glasgow, by an ingenious mechanic, John Gardiner, often employed by Watt
+in earlier years. "This I apprehend," he writes to David Brewster in
+1814, "to be the original from which such machines were made." When we
+consider the extent to which such steam drying-machines are used in our
+day, our estimate of the credit due to Watt cannot be small. The
+drying-machine is no unfit companion to the copying-machine.</p>
+
+<p>Watt revisited Cornwall in 1781 to make an inspection of all the
+engines. Much he found needing attention and improvement. His evenings
+were spent designing "road steam-carriages." This was before the day of
+railroads, and the carriages were to be driven by steam over the
+ordinary coach roads. He filled a quarto drawing-book with different
+plans for these, and covered the idea in one of his patent
+specifications. Boulton suggested in 1781 that the idea of rotary motion
+should be developed, which Watt had from the first regarded as of prime
+importance. It was for this he had invented his original wheel engine,
+and in his first patent of 1769 he describes one method of securing it.
+It occurred to him that the ordinary engine might be adapted to give the
+rotary motion. He wrote from Cornwall to Boulton: "As to the circular
+motion, I will apply it as soon as I can." He prepared a model upon his
+return to Soho, using <span class="pagenum">Pg. 145</span>a crank connected with the working-beam of the
+engine for that purpose, which worked satisfactorily. There was nothing
+new in the crank motion; it was used on every spinning-wheel,
+grind-stone and foot-lathe turned by hand, but its application to the
+steam-engine was new. As early as 1771, he writes:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I have at times had my thoughts a good deal upon the subject. In
+general, it appears to me that a crank of a sufficient sweep
+will be by much the sweetest motion, and perhaps not the
+dearest, if its durability be considered ... I then resolved to
+adopt the crank ... Of this I caused a model to be made, which
+performed to satisfaction. But being then very much engaged with
+other business, I neglected to take a patent immediately, and
+having employed a blackguard of the name of Cartwright (who was
+afterward hanged), about this model, he, when in company with
+some of the same sort who worked at Wasborough's mill, and were
+complaining of its irregularities and frequent disasters, told
+them he could put them in a way to make a rotative motion which
+would not go out of order nor stun them with its noise, and
+accordingly explained to them what he had seen me do. Soon after
+which, John Steed, who was engineer at Wasborough's mill, took a
+patent for a rotative motion with a crank, and applied it to
+their engine. Suspicions arising of Cartwright's treachery, he
+was strictly questioned, and confessed his part in the
+transaction when too late to be of service to us.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Overtures were made by Wasborough to exchange patents and work together,
+which Watt scornfully rejected. He writes:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Though I am not so saucy as many of my countrymen, I have enough
+innate pride to prevent me from doing a mean action because a
+servile prudence may dictate it ... I will never meanly sue a
+thief to give me my own again unless I have nothing left behind.</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 146</div>
+<p>His blood was up. No dealings with rascals!</p>
+
+<p>July, 1781, Watt had finished his studies, went to Penryn, and swore he
+had "invented certain new methods of applying the vibrating or
+reciprocating motion of steam or fire engines to produce a continued
+rotation or circular motion round an axis or centre, and thereby to give
+motion to the wheels of mills or other machines."</p>
+
+<p>Watt proceeded to work out the plan of the rotary engine, stimulated by
+numerous inquiries for steam engines for driving all kinds of mills. He
+found that "the people in London, Manchester and Birmingham are
+steam-mill mad."</p>
+
+<p>During many long years of trial with their financial troubles, inferior
+and drunken workmen, disappointing engines, Cornish mine-owners to annoy
+him, it is highly probable that Watt only found relief in retiring to
+his garret to gratify his passion for solving difficult mechanical
+problems. We may even imagine that from his serious mission&mdash;the
+development of the engine&mdash;which was ever present, he sometimes flew to
+the numerous less exhausting inventions for recreation, as the weary
+student flies to fiction. His mind at this period seems never to have
+been at rest. His voluminous correspondence constantly reveals one
+invention after another upon which he was engaged. A new micrometer, a
+dividing screw, a new surveying-quadrant, problems for clearing the
+observed distance <span class="pagenum">Pg. 147</span>of the moon from a star of the effects of refraction
+and parallax, a drawing-machine, a copying-machine for
+sculpture&mdash;anything and everything he used or saw seems immediately to
+have been subjected to the question: "Cannot this be improved?" usually
+with a response in the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>As we have read, he had long studied the question of a locomotive steam
+carriage. In Muirhead's Biography, several pages are devoted to this. In
+his seventh "new improvement," in his patent of 1784, he describes "the
+principle and construction of steam engines which are applied to give
+motion to wheel carriages for removing persons, goods, or other matter
+from place to place, in which case the engines themselves must be
+portable." Mr. Murdoch made a model of the engine here specified which
+performed well, but nothing important came of all this until 1802, when
+the problem was instantly changed by Watt's friend, Mr. Edgeworth,
+writing him, "I have always thought that steam would become the
+universal lord, and that we should in time scorn post-horses. <i>An iron
+railroad would be a cheaper thing than a road of the common
+construction.</i>" Here lay in a few words the idea from which our railway
+system has sprung. Surely Edgeworth deserves to be placed among the
+immortals.<a name="FNanchor_3_5" id="FNanchor_3_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_5" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> As in the case of the steamship, however, <span class="pagenum">Pg. 148</span>the
+indispensable steam engine of Watt had to furnish the motive power. The
+railroad is only the necessary smooth track upon which the steam engine
+could perform its miracle. It is significant that steam power upon roads
+required the abandonment of the usual highway. So we may believe is the
+automobile to force new roads of its own, or to widen existing highways,
+rendering those safe under certain rules for speed of twenty miles per
+hour, or even more, when they were intended only for eight or ten.</p>
+
+<p>The reading lamp of Watt's day was a poor affair, and as he never saw an
+inefficient instrument without studying its improvement, he produced a
+new lamp. He wrote Argand of the Argand burner upon the subject and for
+a long time Watt lamps were made at the Soho works, which gave a light
+surpassing in steadiness and brilliance anything of the kind that had
+yet appeared. He gives four plans for lamps, "with the reservoir below
+and the stem as tall as you please." He also made an instrument for
+determining the specific gravity of liquids, and a year after this he
+"found out a method of working tubes of the elastic resin without
+dissolving it." The importance of such tubes for a thousand purposes in
+the arts and sciences is now appreciated.</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 149</div>
+<p>Watt gave much time to an arithmetical machine which he found
+exceedingly simple to plan, but he adds, "I have learnt by experience
+that in mechanics many things fall out between the cup and the mouth."
+He describes what it is to accomplish, but it remained for Babbage at a
+much later date to perfect the machine. A machine for copying sculpture
+amused him for a time but it was never finished.</p>
+
+<p>If any difficulty of a mechanical nature arose, people naturally turned
+to Watt for a solution. Thus the Glasgow University failed to get pipes
+for conveying water across the Clyde to stand, the channel of the river
+being covered with mud and shifty sand, full of inequalities, and
+subject to the pressure of a considerable body of water. Application was
+at last made to the recognised genius. If he could not solve it, who
+could? This was just one of the things that Watt liked to do. He
+promptly devised an articulated suction pipe with parts formed on the
+principle of a lobster's tail. This crustacean tube a thousand feet long
+solved the matter. Watt stated that his services were induced solely by
+a desire to be of use in procuring good water to the city of Glasgow,
+and to promote the prosperity of a company which had risked so much for
+the public good. These were handsomely acknowledged by the presentation
+to him of a valuable piece of plate.</p>
+
+<p>As another proof of Watt's habit of thinking of everything <span class="pagenum">Pg. 150</span>that could
+possibly be improved, it may be news to many readers that the
+consumption of the smoke from steam engines early attracted his
+attention, and that he patented devices for this. These have been
+substantially followed in the numerous attempts which have been made
+from time to time to reduce the huge volumes of smoke that keep so many
+cities under a cloud. He was successful and his son James writes to him
+in 1790 from Manchester:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>It is astonishing what an impression the smoke-consuming power
+of the engine has made upon everybody hereabouts. They scarcely
+trusted to the evidence of their senses. You would be diverted
+to hear the strange hypotheses which have been stated to account
+for it.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This is all very well. It is certain that most of the smoke made in
+manufacturing concerns can be consumed, if manufacturers are compelled
+by law to erect sufficient heating surface and to include the well-known
+appliances, including those for careful firing, but no city so far as
+the writer knows has ever been able to enforce effective laws. There
+remain the dwellings of the people to deal with, which give forth smoke
+in large cities in the aggregate far exceeding that made by the
+manufacturing plants. New York pursues the only plan for ensuring the
+clearest skies of any large city in the world where coal is generally
+used, by making the use of bituminous coal unlawful. The enormous growth
+of present New York (45 per cent. in last decade) is not a little
+dependent upon the <span class="pagenum">Pg. 151</span>attraction of clear blue sides and the resulting
+cleanliness of all things in and about the city compared with others.
+When, by the progress of invention or new methods of distributing heat,
+smoke is banished, as it probably will be some day, many rich citizens
+will remain in their respective western cities instead of flocking to
+the clear blue-skied metropolis, as they are now so generally doing.</p>
+
+<p>Such were some of Watt's by-products. His recreation, if found at all,
+was found in change of occupation. We read of no idle days, no pleasure
+trips, no vacations, only change of work.</p>
+
+<p>Rumors of new inventions of engines far excelling his continued to
+disturb Watt, and much of his time was given to investigation. He
+thought of a caloric air engine as possibly one of the new ideas; then
+of the practicability of producing mechanical power by the absorption
+and condensation of gas on the one hand and by its disengagement and
+expansion on the other. His mind seemed to range over the entire field
+of possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>The Hornblower engine had been heralded as sure to displace the Watt.
+When it was described, it proved to be as Watt said, "no less than our
+double-cylinder engine, worked upon our principle of expansion. It is
+fourteen years since I mentioned it to Mr. Smeaton." Watt had explained
+to Dr. Small his method of working steam expansively as early as May,
+1769, and had <span class="pagenum">Pg. 152</span>adopted it in the Soho engine and also in the Shadwell
+engine erected in that year.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen before that Watt had to retrace his steps and abandon for a
+time in later engines what he had before ventured upon.</p>
+
+<p>The application of steam for propelling boats upon the water was, at
+this time (1788), attracting much attention. Boulton and Watt were urged
+to undertake experiments. This they declined to entertain, having their
+facilities fully employed in their own field, but finally Fulton, on
+August 6, 1803, ordered an engine from them from his own drawings,
+intended for this purpose, repeating the order in person in 1804. It was
+shipped to America early in 1805, and in 1807 placed upon the Clermont,
+which ran upon the Hudson River as a passenger boat, attaining a speed
+of about five miles an hour. This was the first steamboat that was ever
+used for passengers, and altho Fulton neither invented the boat nor the
+engine, nor the combination of the two, still he is entitled to great
+credit for overcoming innumerable difficulties sufficient to discourage
+most men. Fulton, who was the son of a Scotsman from Dumfrieshire,
+visited Syminton's steamboat, the <i>Charlotte Dundas</i>, in Scotland, in
+1801, and had seen it successfully towing canal boats upon the Forth and
+Clyde Canal. This was the first boat ever propelled by steam
+successfully for commercial purposes. It was subsequently discarded, not
+because it did not tow the canal boats, <span class="pagenum">Pg. 153</span>but because the revolving
+paddle-wheels caused waves that threatened to wash away the canal banks.</p>
+
+<p>Several engines were sent to New York. The men in charge of one found on
+shipboard a pattern-maker going to America named John Hewitt. He settled
+in America January 12th, 1796, and became the father of the late famous
+and deeply lamented Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, long a member of Congress and
+afterward mayor of New York, foremost in many improvements in the city,
+the last being the Subway, just opened, which owes its inception to him.
+For this service, the Chamber of Commerce presented him with a memorial
+medal. Mr. Hewitt married a daughter of Peter Cooper, founder of the
+Cooper Institute, which owes its wonderful development chiefly to him.
+His children devote themselves and their fortunes to its management. At
+the time of his death in 1902, he was pronounced "the first private
+citizen of the Republic." Small engine-shops (of which the ruins still
+remain), called "Soho" after their prototype, were erected by his father
+near New York city, on the Greenwood division of the Erie Railroad. The
+railroad station was called "Soho" by Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, who was then
+president of the railroad company. Upon Mr. Hewitt's eightieth birthday
+congratulations poured in from all quarters. One cable from abroad
+attracted attention as appropriate and deserved: "Ten octaves every note
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 154</span>truly struck and grandly sung." No man in private life passed away in
+our day with such general lamentation. The Republic got even more
+valuable material than engines from the old home in the ship that
+arrived on January 12, 1796.</p>
+
+<p>We must not permit ourselves to forget that it was not until the Watt
+engine was applied to steam navigation that the success of the latter
+became possible. It was only by this that it could be made practicable,
+so that the steamship is the product of the steam-engine, and it is to
+Watt we owe the modern twenty-three-thousand-ton monster (and larger
+monsters soon to come), which keeps its course against wind and tide,
+almost "unshaked of motion," for this can now properly be said.
+Passengers crossing the Atlantic from port to port now scarcely know
+anything of irregular motion, and never more than the gentlest of slight
+heaves, even during the gale that</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Catches the ruffian billows by their tops,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Curling their monstrous heads."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The ocean, traversed in these ships, is a smooth highway&mdash;nothing but a
+ferry&mdash;and a week spent upon it has become perhaps the most enjoyable
+and the most healthful of holiday excursions, provided the prudent
+excursionist has left behind positive instructions that wireless
+telegrams shall not follow.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_3" id="Footnote_1_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_3"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Perhaps there is no instance so striking as this of the
+immense difference that sometimes lies in the mere accent given one
+monosyllable. Until Mrs. Siddons revealed the real Lady Macbeth, every
+actress had replied, "We fail?" interrogatively, and then encouragingly,
+"Screw your courage to the sticking-point and we'll <i>not</i> fail." Such
+the commonplace reciters. When genius touched the word it flashed and
+sparkled. Then came the prompt response. "<i>We</i> fail." She was of such
+stuff as meets failure without fear. For this revelation the actress
+becomes immortal, since her name is linked with the greatest son of
+time. One word did it, nay a new accent upon a monosyllable&mdash;a trifling
+change say you? "I make it a rule never to mind trifles," said a great
+man. "So should I if I could only tell what were trifles," said a
+greater. One is far on if he can predict consequences that may flow from
+one kind word or the intonation of a word. Fortune sometimes hangs upon
+a glance or nod of kindly recognition as we pass.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_4" id="Footnote_2_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_4"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> An American Murdoch was found in Captain Jones, the best
+manager of works of his day. He entered the service of the Carnegie
+Steel Company as a young mechanic at two dollars per day, a perfect copy
+of Murdoch in many important respects. Reading Murdoch's history, we
+have found ourselves substituting the "captain," a title well earned on
+the field in the war for the Union, which he entered as a private. Once
+he was offered an interest in the firm, which would have made him one of
+the band of young millionaires. His reply was, "Thank you, don't want to
+have anything to do with business. These works (Steel rail mills,
+Pittsburg) give me enough to think of. You just give me a 'thundering
+salary.'" "All right, Captain, the salary of the president of the United
+States is yours." Also like Murdoch, he was an inventor. His principal
+invention, recently sustained by the Supreme Court, would easily yield
+from those who appropriated it and refused payment, at least five
+millions of dollars in royalties. Captain Jones was born in Pennsylvania
+of Welsh parents. Murdoch won promotion at last, and was first
+superintendent of one of the special departments, and later had general
+supervision of the mechanical department, becoming "the right hand man"
+of the firm. The young partners dealt generously with him, and treated
+him with reverence and affection to the end. He died in his eighty-fifth
+year. Captain Jones was injured at the works and passed away just as a
+touch of age came upon him, as many war veterans did. Fortunate is the
+firm that discovers a William Murdoch or a William Jones, and gives him
+swing to do the work of an original in his own way.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_5" id="Footnote_3_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_5"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Since the above was put in type I learn that in his
+forthcoming book upon "The Development of the Locomotive," which
+promises to become the standard, Mr. Angus Sinclair says: "The first
+suggestion of a railroad for goods transportation appears to have been
+made before The Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle by a Mr
+Thomas, of Denton, in February, 1800. Two years later Richard Edgeworth,
+father of the famous novelist, suggested that it should be extended for
+the carrying of passengers." There is no record of Thomas's suggestion,
+as far as we know, but only tradition. Even if made, however, it seems
+to have lain dead. Edgeworth evidently knew nothing of it, and as it was
+his letter to Watt which seems first to have attracted public attention,
+the passage is allowed to stand as written.</p></div>
+
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 155</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 156</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 157</div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<p class="subtitle center smcap">Second Patent</p>
+
+<p>The number and activity of rivals attracted to the steam engine and its
+possible improvement, some of whom had begun infringements upon the Watt
+patents, alarmed Messrs. Watt and Boulton so much that they decided Watt
+should apply for another patent, covering his important improvements
+since the first. Accordingly, October 25, 1781, the patent (already
+referred to on p. 91) was secured, "for certain new methods of producing
+a continued rotative motion around an axis or centre, and thereby to
+give motion to the wheels of mills or other machines."</p>
+
+<p>This patent was necessary in consequence of the difficulties experienced
+in working the steam wheels or rotatory engines described in the first
+patent of 1769, and by Watt's having been so unfairly anticipated, by
+Wasborough in the crank motion.</p>
+
+<p>No less than five different methods for rotatory motion are described in
+the patent, the fifth commonly known as the "sun and planet wheels," of
+which Watt writes to Boulton, January 3, 1782,</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I have tried a model of one of my old plans of rotative engines,
+revived and executed by Mr. Murdoch, which merits being included
+in the <span class="pagenum">Pg. 158</span>specification as a fifth method; for which purpose I
+shall send a drawing and description next post. It has the
+singular property of going twice round for each stroke of the
+engine, and may be made to go oftener round, if required,
+without additional machinery.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Then followed an explanation of the sketch which he sent, and two days
+later he wrote, "I send you the drawings of the fifth method, and
+thought to have sent you the description complete, but it was late last
+night before I finished so far, and to-day have a headache, therefore
+only send you a rough draft of part."</p>
+
+<p>In all of these Watt recommended that a fly-wheel be used to regulate
+the motion, but in the specification for the patent of the following
+year, 1782, his double-acting engine produced a more regular motion and
+rendered a fly-wheel unnecessary, "so that," he says, "in most of our
+great manufactories these engines now supply the place of water, wind
+and horse mills, and instead of carrying the work to the power, the
+prime agent is placed wherever it is most convenient to the
+manufacturer."</p>
+
+<p>This marks one of the most important stages in the development of the
+steam engine. It was at last the portable machine it remains to-day, and
+was placed wherever convenient, complete in itself and with the rotative
+motion adaptable for all manner of work. The ingenious substitutes Watt
+had to invent to avoid the obviously perfect crank motion have of course
+all been discarded, and nothing of these remains except as <span class="pagenum">Pg. 159</span>proofs, where
+none are needed, that genius has powers in reserve for emergencies;
+balked in one direction, it hews out another path for itself.</p>
+
+<p>While preparing the specification for this patent of 1781, Watt was busy
+upon another specification quite as important, which appeared in the
+following year, 1782. It embraced the following new improvements, the
+winnowing of numberless ideas and experiments that he had conceived and
+tested for some years previous:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>1. The use of steam on the expansive principle; together with
+various methods or contrivances (six in number, some of them
+comprising various modifications), for equalising the expansive
+power.</p>
+
+<p>2. The double-acting engine; in which steam is admitted to press
+the piston upward as well as downward; the piston being also
+aided in its ascent as well as in its descent by a vacuum
+produced by condensation on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>3. The double-engine; consisting of two engines, primary and
+secondary, of which the steam-vessels and condensers communicate
+by pipes and valves, so that they can be worked either
+independently or in concert; and make their strokes either
+alternately or both together, as may be required.</p>
+
+<p>4. The employment of a toothed rack and sector, instead of
+chains, for guiding the piston-rod.</p>
+
+<p>5. A rotative engine, or steam-wheel.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Here we have three of the vital elements required toward the completion
+of the work: first, steam used expansively; second, the double-acting
+engine. It will be remembered that Watt's first engines only took in
+steam at the bottom of the cylinder, as Newcomen's <span class="pagenum">Pg. 160</span>did, but with this
+difference: Watt used the steam to perform work which Newcomen could not
+do, the latter only using steam to force the piston itself upward. Now
+came Watt's great step forward. Having a cylinder closed at the top,
+while the Newcomen cylinder remained open, it was as easy to admit steam
+at the top to press the piston down as to admit it at the bottom to
+press the piston up; also as easy to apply his condenser to the steam
+above as below, at the moment a vacuum was needed. All this was
+ingeniously provided for by numerous devices and covered by the patent.
+Third, he went one step farther to the compound engine, consisting of
+two engines, primary and secondary, working steam expansively
+independently or in concert, with strokes alternate or simultaneous. The
+compound engine was first thought of by Watt about 1767. He laid a large
+drawing of it on parchment before parliament when soliciting an
+extension of his first patent. The reason he did not proceed to
+construct it was "the difficulty he had encountered in teaching others
+the construction and use of the single engine, and in overcoming
+prejudices"; the patent of 1782 was only taken out because he found
+himself "beset with a host of plagiaries and pirates."</p>
+
+<p>One of the earliest of these double-acting engines was erected at the
+Albion Mills, London, in 1786. Watt writes:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The mention of Albion Mills induces me to say a few words
+respecting <span class="pagenum">Pg. 161</span>an establishment so unjustly calumniated in its day,
+and the premature destruction of which, by fire, in 1791, was,
+not improbably, imputed to design. So far from being, as
+misrepresented, a monopoly injurious to the public, it was the
+means of considerably reducing the price of flour while it
+continued at work.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The "double-acting" engine was followed by the "compound" engine, of
+which Watt says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>A new compound engine, or method of connecting together the
+cylinders and condensers of two or more distinct engines, so as
+to make the steam which has been employed to press on the piston
+of the first, act expansively upon the piston of the second,
+etc., and thus derive an additional power to act either
+alternately or co-jointly with that of the first cylinder.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We have here, in all substantial respects, the modern engine of to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Two fine improvements have been made since Watt's time: first, the
+piston-rings of Cartwright, which effectively removed one of Watt's most
+serious difficulties, the escape of steam, even though the best packing
+he could devise were used&mdash;the chief reason he could not use
+high-pressure steam. In our day, the use of this is rapidly extending,
+as is that of superheated steam. Packing the piston was an elaborate
+operation even after Watt's day.</p>
+
+<p>It was not because Watt did not know as well as any of our present
+experts the advantages of high pressures, that he did not use them, but
+simply because of the mechanical difficulties then attending their
+adoption. He was always in advance of mechanical practicalities rather
+than behind, and as we have <span class="pagenum">Pg. 162</span>seen, had to retrace his steps, in the case
+of expansion.</p>
+
+<p>The other improvement is the cross-head of Haswell, an American, a
+decided advance, giving the piston rod a smooth and straight bed to rest
+upon and freeing it from all disturbance. The drop valve is now
+displacing the slide valve as a better form of excluding or admitting
+steam.</p>
+
+<p>Watt of course knew nothing of the thermo-dynamic value of high
+temperature without high pressure, altho fully conversant with the value
+of pressures. This had not been even imagined by either philosopher or
+engineer until discovered by Carnot as late as 1824. Even if he had
+known about it the mechanical arts in his day were in no condition to
+permit its use. Even high pressures were impracticable to any great
+extent. It is only during the past few years that turbines and
+superheating, having long been practically discarded, show encouraging
+signs of revival. They give great promise of advancement, the hitherto
+insuperable difficulties of lubrication and packing having been overcome
+within the last five years. Superheating especially promises to yield
+substantial results as compared with the practice with ordinary engines,
+but the margin of saving in steam over the best quadruple expansion
+engine cannot be great. Lord Kelvin however expects it to be the final
+contribution of science to the highest possible economy in the steam
+engine.</p>
+
+<p>In the January (1905) number of "Stevens Institute <span class="pagenum">Pg. 163</span>Indicator," Professor
+Denton has an instructive r&eacute;sum&eacute; of recent steam engine economics. He
+tells us that Steam Turbines are now being applied to Piston Engines to
+operate with the latter's exhaust, to effect the same saving as the
+sulphur dioxide cylinder; and adds</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>that the Turbine is a formidable competitor to the Piston Engine
+is mainly due to the fact that it more completely realizes the
+expansive principle enunciated in the infancy of steam history
+as the fundamental factor of economy by its sagacious founder,
+the immortal Watt.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Watt's favorite employment in Soho works late in 1783 and early in 1784
+was to teach his engine, now become as docile as it was powerful, to
+work a tilt hammer. In 1777 he had written Boulton that</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Wilkinson wants an engine to raise a stamp of 15 cwt. thirty or
+forty times in a minute. I have set Webb to work to try it with
+the little engine and a stamp-hammer of 60 lbs. weight. Many of
+these <i>battering rams</i> will be wanted if they answer.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The trial was successful. A new machine to work a 700 lbs. hammer for
+Wilkinson was made, and April 27, 1783, Watt writes that</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>it makes from 15 to 50, and even 60, strokes per minute, and
+works a hammer, raised two feet high, which has struck 300 blows
+per minute.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The engine was to work two hammers, but was capable of working four of 7
+cwt. each. He says, with excusable pride,</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I believe it is a thing never done before, to make a hammer of
+that weight make 300 blows per minute; and, in fact, it is more
+a <span class="pagenum">Pg. 164</span>matter to brag of than for any other use, as the rate wanted
+is from 90 to 100 blows, being as quick as the workmen can
+manage the iron under it.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This most ingenious application of steam power was included in Watt's
+next patent of April 28, 1784. It embraced many improvements, mostly,
+however, now of little consequence, the most celebrated being "parallel
+motion," of which Watt was prouder than any other of his triumphs. He
+writes to his son, November, 1808, twenty-four years after it was
+invented (1784):</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Though I am not over anxious after fame, yet I am more proud of
+the parallel motion than of any other mechanical invention I
+have ever made.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He wrote Boulton, in June, 1784:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I have started a new hare. I have got a glimpse of a method of
+causing a piston-rod to move up and down perpendicularly, by
+only fixing it to a piece of iron upon the beam ... I think it
+one of the most ingenious simple pieces of mechanism I have
+contrived.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>October, 1784, he writes:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The new central perpendicular motion answers beyond expectation,
+and does not make the shadow of a noise.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>When I saw it in movement, it afforded me all the pleasure of a
+novelty, as if I had been examining the invention of another.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>When beam-engines were universally used for pumping, this parallel
+motion was of great advantage. It has been superseded in our day, by
+improved piston guides and cross-heads, the construction of which in
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 165</span>Watt's day was impossible, but no invention has commanded in greater
+degree the admiration of all who comprehend the principles upon which it
+acts, or who have witnessed the smoothness, orderly power and "sweet
+simplicity" of its movements. Watt's pride in it as his favorite
+invention in these respects is fully justified.</p>
+
+<p>A detailed specification for a road steam-carriage concludes the claims
+of this patent, but the idea of railroads, instead of common roads,
+coming later left the construction of the locomotive to Stephenson.<a name="FNanchor_1_6" id="FNanchor_1_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_6" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Watt's last patent bears date June 14, 1785, and was</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>for certain newly improved methods of constructing furnaces or
+fire-places for heating, boiling, or evaporating of water and
+other liquids which are applicable to steam engines and other
+purposes, and also for heating, melting, and smelting of metals
+and their ores, whereby greater effects are produced from the
+fuel, and the smoke is in a great measure prevented or consumed.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The principle, "an old one of my own," as Watt says, is in great part
+acted upon to-day.</p>
+
+<p>So numerous were the improvements made by Watt at various periods, which
+greatly increased the utility of his engine, it would be in vain to
+attempt a detailed recital of his endless contrivances, but we may
+mention <span class="pagenum">Pg. 166</span>as highly important, the throttle-valve, the governor, the
+steam-gauge and the indicator. Muirhead says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The throttle-valve is worked directly by the engineer to start
+or stop the engine, and also to regulate the supply of steam.
+Watt describes it as a circular plate of metal, having a spindle
+fixed across its diameter, the plate being accurately fitted to
+an aperture in a metal ring of some thickness, through the
+edgeway of which the spindle is fitted steam-tight, and the ring
+fixed between the two flanches of the joint of the steam-pipe
+which is next to the cylinder. One end of the spindle, which has
+a square upon it, comes through the ring, and has a spanner
+fixed upon it, by which it can be turned in either direction.
+When the valve is parallel to the outsides of the ring, it shuts
+the opening nearly perfectly; but when its plane lies at an
+angle to the ring, it admits more or less steam according to the
+degree it has opened; consequently the piston is acted upon with
+more or less force.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Papin preferred gunpowder as a safer source of power than steam, but
+that was before it had been automatically regulated by the "Governor."
+The governor has always been the writer's favorite invention, probably
+because it was the first he fully understood. It is an application of
+the centrifugal principle adapted and mechanically improved. Two heavy
+revolving balls swing round an upright rod. The faster the rod revolves
+the farther from it the balls swing out. The slower it turns the closer
+the balls fall toward it. By proper attachments the valve openings
+admitting steam are widened or narrowed accordingly. Thus the higher
+speed of the engine, the less steam admitted, the slower the speed the
+more steam admitted. Hence any uniform speed desired can be maintained:
+should the engine be called upon <span class="pagenum">Pg. 167</span>to perform greater service at one
+moment than another, as in the case of steel rolling mills, speed being
+checked when the piece of steel enters the rolls, immediately the valves
+widen, more steam rushes into the engine, and <i>vice versa</i>. Until the
+governor came regular motion was impossible&mdash;steam was an unruly steed.</p>
+
+<p>Arago describes the steam-gauge thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>It is a short glass tube with its lower end immersed in a
+cistern of mercury, which is placed within an iron box screwed
+to the boiler steam-pipe, or to some other part communicating
+freely with the steam, which, pressing on the surface of the
+mercury in the cistern, raises the mercury in the tube (which is
+open to the air at the upper end), and its altitude serves to
+show the elastic power of the steam over that of the atmosphere.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The indicator he thus describes:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>The barometer being adapted only to ascertain the degree of
+exhaustion in the condenser where its variations were small, the
+vibrations of the mercury rendered it very difficult, if not
+impracticable, to ascertain the state of the exhaustion of the
+cylinder at the different periods of the stroke of the engine;
+it became therefore necessary to contrive an instrument for that
+purpose that should be less subject to vibration, and should
+show nearly the degree of exhaustion in the cylinder at all
+periods. The following instrument, called the Indicator, is
+found to answer the end sufficiently. A cylinder about an inch
+diameter, and six inches long, exceedingly truly bored, has a
+solid piston accurately fitted to it, so as to slide easy by the
+help of some oil; the stem of the piston is guided in the
+direction of the axis of the cylinder, so that it may not be
+subject to jam, or cause friction in any part of its motion. The
+bottom of this cylinder has a cock and small pipe joined to it
+which, having a conical end, may be inserted in a hole drilled
+in the cylinder of the engine near one of the ends, so that, by
+opening the small cock, a communication may be effected between
+the inside of the cylinder and the indicator.</p>
+
+<p>The cylinder of the indicator is fastened upon a wooden or <span class="pagenum">Pg. 168</span>metal
+frame, more than twice its own length; one end of a spiral steel
+spring, like that of a spring steel-yard, is attached to the
+upper part of the frame, and the other end of the spring is
+attached to the upper end of the piston-rod of the indicator.
+The spring is made of such a strength, that when the cylinder of
+the indicator is perfectly exhausted, the pressure of the
+atmosphere may force its piston down within an inch of its
+bottom. An index being fixed to the top of its piston-rod, the
+point where it stands, when quite exhausted, is marked from an
+observation of a barometer communicating with the same exhausted
+vessel, and the scale divided accordingly.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Improvements come in many ways, sometimes after much thought and after
+many experimental failures. Sometimes they flash upon clever inventors,
+but let us remember this is only after they have spent long years
+studying the problem. In the case of the steam engine, however, a quite
+important improvement came very curiously. Humphrey Potter was a lad
+employed to turn off and on the stop cocks of a Newcomen engine, a
+monotonous task, for, at every stroke one had to be turned to let steam
+into the boiler and another for injecting the cold water to condense it,
+and this had to be done at the right instant or the engine could not
+move. How to relieve himself from the drudgery became the question. He
+wished time to play with the other boys whose merriment was often heard
+at no great distance, and this set him thinking. Humphrey saw that the
+beam in its movements might serve to open and shut these stop cocks and
+he promptly began to attach cords to the cocks and then tied them at the
+proper points to the beam, so that ascending it pulled one <span class="pagenum">Pg. 169</span>cord and
+descending the other. Thus came to us perhaps not the first automatic
+device, but no doubt the first of its kind that was ever seen there. The
+steam engine henceforth was self-attending, providing itself for its own
+supply of steam and for its condensation with perfect regularity. It had
+become in this feature automatic.</p>
+
+<p>The cords of Potter gave place to vertical rods with small pegs which
+pressed upward or downward as desired. These have long since been
+replaced by other devices, but all are only simple modifications of a
+contrivance devised by the mere lad whose duty it was to turn the stop
+cocks.</p>
+
+<p>It would be interesting to know the kind of man this precocious boy
+inventor became, or whether he received suitable reward for his
+important improvement. We search in vain; no mention of him is to be
+found. Let us, however, do our best to repair the neglect and record
+that, in the history of the steam engine, Humphrey Potter must ever be
+honorably associated with famous men as the only famous boy inventor.</p>
+
+<p>In the development of the steam engine, we have one purely accidental
+discovery. In the early Newcomen engines, the head of the piston was
+covered by a sheet of water to fill the spaces between the circular
+contour of the movable piston and the internal surface of the cylinder,
+for there were no cylinder-boring tools in those days, and surfaces of
+cylinders were most irregular. To the surprise of the engineer, the
+engine <span class="pagenum">Pg. 170</span>began one day working at greatly increased speed, when it was
+found that the piston-head had been pierced by accident and that the
+cold water had passed in small drops into the cylinder and had condensed
+the steam, thus rapidly making a more perfect vacuum. From this
+accidental discovery came the improved plan of injecting a shower of
+cold water through the cylinder, the strokes of the engine being thus
+greatly increased.</p>
+
+<p>The year 1783 was one of Watt's most fruitful years of the dozen which
+may be said to have teemed with his inventions. His celebrated discovery
+of the composition of water was published in this year. The attempts
+made to deprive him of the honor of making this discovery ended in
+complete failure. Sir Humphrey Davy, Henry, Arago, Liebig, and many
+others of the highest authority acknowledged and established Watt's
+claims.</p>
+
+<p>The true greatness of the modest Watt was never more finely revealed
+than in his correspondence and papers published during the controversy.
+Watt wrote Dr. Black, April 21st, that he had handed his paper to Dr.
+Priestley to be read at the Royal Society. It contained the new idea of
+water, hitherto considered an element and now discovered to be a
+compound. Thus was announced one of the most wonderful discoveries found
+in the history of science. It was justly termed the beginning of a new
+era, the dawn of a new day in physical chemistry, indeed the real
+foundation for the <span class="pagenum">Pg. 171</span>new system of chemistry, and, according to Dr. Young,
+"a discovery perhaps of greater importance than any single fact which
+human ingenuity has ascertained either before or since." What Newton had
+done for light Watt was held to have done for water. Muirfield well
+says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>It is interesting in a high degree to remark that for him who
+had so fully subdued to the use of man the gigantic power of
+steam it was also reserved to unfold its compound natural and
+elemental principles, as if on this subject there were to be
+nothing which his researches did not touch, nothing which they
+touched that they did not adorn.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Arago says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>In his memoir of the month of April, Priestley added an
+important circumstance to those resulting from the experiments
+of his predecessors: he proved that the weight of the water
+which is deposited upon the sides of the vessel, at the instant
+of the detonation of the oxygen and hydrogen, is precisely the
+same as the weights of the two gases.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Watt, to whom Priestley communicated this important result, immediately
+perceived that proof was here afforded that water was not a simple body.
+Writing to his illustrious friend, he asks:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>What are the products of your experiment? They are <i>water</i>,
+<i>light</i> and <i>heat</i>. Are we not, thence, authorised to conclude
+that water is a compound of the two gases, oxygen and hydrogen,
+deprived of a portion of their latent or elementary heat; that
+oxygen is water deprived of its hydrogen, but still united to
+its latent heat and light? If light be only a modification of
+heat, or a simple circumstance of its manifestation, or a
+component part of hydrogen, oxygen gas will be water deprived of
+its hydrogen, but combined with latent heat.</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 172</div>
+<p>This passage, so clear, so precise, and logical, is taken from a letter
+of Watt's, dated April 26, 1783. The letter was communicated by
+Priestley to several of the scientific men in London, and was
+transmitted immediately afterward to Sir Joseph Banks, the President of
+the Royal Society, to be read at one of the meetings of that learned
+body.</p>
+
+<p>Watt had for many years entertained the opinion that air was a
+modification of water. He writes Boulton, December 10, 1782:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>You may remember that I have often said, that if water could be
+heated red-hot or something more, it would probably be converted
+into some kind of air, because steam would in that case have
+lost all its latent heat, and that it would have been turned
+solely into sensible heat, and probably a total change of the
+nature of the fluid would ensue.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A month after he hears of Priestley's experiments, he writes Dr. Black
+(April 21, 1783) that he "believes he has found out the cause of the
+conversion of water into air." A few days later, he writes to Dr.
+Priestley:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>In the deflagration of the inflammable and dephlogisticated
+airs, the airs unite with violence&mdash;become red-hot&mdash;and, on
+cooling, totally disappear. The only fixed matter which remains
+is <i>water</i>; and <i>water</i>, <i>light</i>, and <i>heat</i>, are all the
+products. Are we not then authorised to conclude that water is
+composed of dephlogisticated and inflammable air, or phlogiston,
+deprived of part of their latent heat; and that
+dephlogisticated, or pure air, is composed of water deprived of
+its phlogiston, and united to heat and light; and if light be
+only a modification of heat, or a component part of phlogiston,
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 173</span>then pure air consists of water deprived of its phlogiston and
+of latent heat?</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It appears from the letter to Dr. Black of April 21st, that Mr. Watt
+had, on that day, written his letter to Dr. Priestley, to be read by him
+to the Royal Society, but on the 26th he informs Mr. DeLuc, that having
+observed some inaccuracies of style in that letter, he had removed them,
+and would send the Doctor a corrected copy in a day or two, which he
+accordingly did on the 28th; the corrected letter (the same that was
+afterward embodied verbatim in the letter to Mr. DeLuc, printed in the
+Philosophical Transactions), being dated April 26th. In enclosing it,
+Mr. Watt adds, "As to myself, the more I consider what I have said, I am
+the more satisfied with it, as I find none of the facts repugnant."</p>
+
+<p>Thus was announced for the first time one of the most wonderful
+discoveries recorded in the history of science, startling in its novelty
+and yet so simple.</p>
+
+<p>Watt had divined the import of Priestley's experiment, for he had
+mastered all knowledge bearing upon the question, but even when this was
+communicated to Priestley, he could not accept it, and, after making new
+experiments, he writes Watt, April 29, 1783, "Behold with surprise and
+indignation the figure of an apparatus that has utterly ruined your
+beautiful hypothesis," giving a rough sketch with his pen of the
+apparatus employed. Mark the promptitude of <span class="pagenum">Pg. 174</span>the master who had
+deciphered the message which the experimenter himself could not
+translate. He immediately writes in reply May 2, 1783:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I deny that your experiment ruins my hypothesis. It is not
+founded on so brittle a basis as an earthen retort, nor on <i>its</i>
+converting water into air. I founded it on the other facts, and
+was obliged to stretch it a good deal before it would fit this
+experiment.... I maintain my hypothesis until it shall be shown
+that the water formed after the explosion of the pure and
+inflammable airs, has some other origin.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He also writes to Mr. DeLuc on May 18th:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I do not see Dr. Priestley's experiment in the same light that
+he does. It does not disprove my theory.... My assertion was
+simply, that air (<i>i.e.</i>, dephlogisticated air, or oxygen,
+which was also commonly called vital air, pure air, or simple
+<i>air</i>) was water deprived of its phlogiston, and united to heat,
+which I grounded on the decomposition of air by inflammation
+with inflammable air, the residuum, or product of which, is only
+water and heat.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Having, by experiments of his own, fully satisfied himself of the
+correctness of his theory, in November he prepared a full statement for
+the Royal Society, having asked the society to withhold his first paper
+until he could prove it for himself by experiment. He never doubted its
+correctness, but some members of the society advised that it had better
+be supported by facts.</p>
+
+<p>When the discovery was so daring that Priestley, who made the
+experiments, could not believe it and had to be convinced by Watt of its
+correctness, there seems little room left for other claimants, <span class="pagenum">Pg. 175</span>nor for
+doubt as to whom is due the credit of the revelation.</p>
+
+<p>Watt encountered the difficulties of different weights and measures in
+his studies of foreign writers upon chemistry, a serious inconvenience
+which still remains with us.</p>
+
+<p>He wrote Mr. Kirwan, November, 1783:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I had a great deal of trouble in reducing the weights and
+measures to speak the same language; and many of the German
+experiments become still more difficult from their using
+different weights and different divisions of them in different
+parts of that empire. It is therefore a very desirable thing to
+have these difficulties removed, and to get all philosophers to
+use pounds divided in the same manner, and I flatter myself that
+may be accomplished if you, Dr. Priestley, and a few of the
+French experimenters will agree to it; for the utility is so
+evident, that every thinking person must immediately be
+convinced of it.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Here follows his plan: Let the</p>
+
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Philosophical pound consist of 10 ounces, or 10,000 grains.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">the ounce&nbsp; &nbsp; "&nbsp; &nbsp; "&nbsp; 10 drachms or 1,000&nbsp; &nbsp; "</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">the drachm&nbsp;  "&nbsp; &nbsp; "&nbsp; 100 grains.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Let all elastic fluids be measured by the ounce measure of
+water, by which the valuation of different cubic inches will be
+avoided, and the common decimal tables of specific gravities
+will immediately give the weights of those elastic fluids.</p>
+
+<p>If all philosophers cannot agree on one pound or one grain, let
+every one take his own pound or his own grain; it will affect
+nothing but doses of medicines, which must be corrected as is
+now done; but as it would be much better that the identical
+pound was used by all. I would propose that the Amsterdam or
+Paris pound be assumed as the standard, being now the most
+universal in Europe: it is to our avoirdupois pound as 109 is to
+100. Our avoirdupois pound contains 7,000 of our grains, and the
+Paris pound 7,630 of our grains, but it contains 9,376 Paris
+grains, so that the division <span class="pagenum">Pg. 176</span>into 10,000 would very little
+affect the Paris grain. I prefer dividing the pound afresh to
+beginning with the Paris grain, because I believe the pound is
+very general, but the grain local.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Priestley has agreed to this proposal, and has referred it
+to you to fix upon the pound if you otherwise approve of it. I
+shall be happy to have your opinion of it as soon as convenient,
+and to concert with you the means of making it universal.... I
+have some hopes that the foot may be fixed by the pendulum and a
+measure of water, and a pound derived from that; but in the
+interim let us at least assume a proper division, which from the
+nature of it must be intelligible as long as decimal arithmetic
+is used.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He afterward wrote, in a letter to Magellan:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>As to the precise foot or pound, I do not look upon it to be
+very material, in chemistry at least. Either the common English
+foot may be adopted according to your proposal, which has the
+advantage that a cubic foot is exactly 1,000 ounces,
+consequently the present foot and ounce would be retained; or a
+pendulum which vibrates 100 times a minute may be adopted for
+the standard, which would make the foot 14.2 of our present
+inches, and the cubic foot would be very exactly a bushel, and
+would weigh 101 of the present pounds, so that the present pound
+would not be much altered. But I think that by this scheme the
+foot would be too large, and that the inconvenience of changing
+all the foot measures and things depending on them, would be
+much greater than changing all the pounds, bushels, gallons,
+etc. I therefore give the preference to those plans which retain
+the foot and ounce.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The war of the standards still rages&mdash;metric, or decimal, or no change.
+What each nation has is good enough for it in the opinion of many of its
+people. Some day an international commission will doubtless assemble to
+bring order out of chaos. As far as the English-speaking race is
+concerned, it seems that a <span class="pagenum">Pg. 177</span>decided improvement could readily be affected
+with very trifling, indeed scarcely perceptible, changes. Especially is
+this so with money values. Britain could merge her system with those of
+Canada and America, by simply making her "pound" the exact value of the
+American five dollars, it being now only ten pence less; her silver
+coinage one and two shillings equal to quarter- and half-dollars, the
+present coin to be recoined upon presentation, but meanwhile to pass
+current. Weights and measures are more difficult to assimilate. Science
+being world-wide, and knowing no divisions, should use uniform terms.
+Alas! at the distance of nearly a century and a half we seem no nearer
+the prospect of a system of universal weights and measures than in
+Watt's day, but Watt's idea is not to be lost sight of for all that. He
+was a seer who often saw what was to come.</p>
+
+<p>We have referred to the absence of holidays in Watt's strenuous life,
+but Birmingham was remarkable for a number of choice spirits who formed
+the celebrated Lunar Society, whose members were all devoted to the
+pursuit of knowledge and mutually agreeable to one another. Besides Watt
+and Boulton, there were Dr. Priestley, discoverer of oxygen gas, Dr.
+Darwin, Dr. Withering, Mr. Keir, Mr. Galton, Mr. Wedgwood of Wedgwood
+ware fame, who had monthly dinners at their respective houses&mdash;hence the
+"Lunar" Society. Dr. Priestley, discoverer of oxygen, who arrived in
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 178</span>Birmingham in 1780, has repeatedly mentioned the great pleasure he had
+in having Watt for a neighbor. He says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I consider my settlement at Birmingham as the happiest event in
+my life; being highly favourable to every object I had in view,
+philosophical or theological. In the former respect I had the
+convenience of good workmen of every kind, and the society of
+persons eminent for their knowledge of chemistry; particularly
+Mr. Watt, Mr. Keir, and Dr. Withering. These, with Mr. Boulton
+and Dr. Darwin, who soon left us by removing from Lichfield to
+Derby, Mr. Galton, and afterwards Mr. Johnson of Kenilworth and
+myself, dined together every month, calling ourselves <i>the Lunar
+Society</i>, because the time of our meeting was near the
+full-moon&mdash;in order,</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>as he elsewhere says,</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>to have the benefit of its light in returning home.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Richard Lovell Edgeworth says of this distinguished coterie:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>By means of Mr. Keir, I became acquainted with Dr. Small of
+Birmingham, a man esteemed by all who knew him, and by all who
+were admitted to his friendship beloved with no common
+enthusiasm. Dr. Small formed a link which combined Mr. Boulton,
+Mr. Watt, Dr. Darwin, Mr. Wedgwood, Mr. Day, and myself
+together&mdash;men of very different characters, but all devoted to
+literature and science. This mutual intimacy has never been
+broken but by death, nor have any of the number failed to
+distinguish themselves in science or literature. Some may think
+that I ought with due modesty to except myself. Mr. Keir, with
+his knowledge of the world and good sense; Dr. Small, with his
+benevolence and profound sagacity; Wedgwood, with his increasing
+industry, experimental variety, and calm investigation; Boulton,
+with his mobility, quick perception, and bold adventure; Watt,
+with his strong inventive faculty, undeviating steadiness, and
+bold resources; Darwin, with his imagination, science, and
+poetical excellence; and Day with his unwearied research after
+truth, his integrity and eloquence <span class="pagenum">Pg. 179</span>proved altogether such a
+society as few men have had the good fortune to live with; such
+an assemblage of friends, as fewer still have had the happiness
+to possess, and keep through life.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The society continued to exist until the beginning of the century, 1800.
+Watt was the last surviving member. The last reference is Dr.
+Priestley's dedication to it, in 1793, of one of his works "Experiments
+on the Generation of Air from Water," in which he says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>There are few things that I more regret, in consequence of my
+removal from Birmingham, than the loss of your society. It both
+encouraged and enlightened me; so that what I did there of a
+philosophical kind ought in justice to be attributed almost as
+much to you as to myself. From our cheerful meetings I never
+absented myself voluntarily, and from my pleasing recollection
+they will never be absent. Should the cause of our separation
+make it necessary for to me remove to a still greater distance
+from you, I shall only think the more, and with the more regret,
+of our past interviews.... Philosophy engrossed us wholly.
+Politicians may think there are no objects of any consequence
+besides those which immediately interest <i>them</i>. But objects far
+superior to any of which they have an idea engaged our
+attention, and the discussion of them was accompanied with a
+satisfaction to which they are strangers. Happy would it be for
+the world if their pursuits were as tranquil, and their projects
+as innocent, and as friendly to the best interests of mankind,
+as ours.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>That the partners, Boulton and Watt, had such pleasure amid their lives
+of daily cares, all will be glad to know. It was not all humdrum
+money-making nor intense inventing. There was the society of gifted
+minds, the serene atmosphere of friendship in the high realms of mutual
+regard, best recreation of all.</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 180</div>
+<p>In 1786, quite a break in their daily routine took place. In that year
+Messrs. Boulton and Watt visited Paris to meet proposals for their
+erecting steam engines in France under an exclusive privilege. They were
+also to suggest improvements on the great hydraulic machine of Marly.
+Before starting, the sagacious and patriotic Watt wrote to Boulton:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I think if either of us go to France, we should first wait upon
+Mr. Pitt (prime minister), and let him know our errand thither,
+that the tongue of slander may be silenced, all undue suspicion
+removed, and ourselves rendered more valuable in his eyes,
+because others desire to have us!</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>They had a flattering reception in Paris from the ministry, who seemed
+desirous that they should establish engine-works in France. This they
+absolutely refused to do, as being contrary to the interests of their
+country. It may be feared we are not quite so scrupulous in our day. On
+the other hand, refusal now would be fruitless, it has become so easy to
+obtain plans, and even experts, to build machines for any kind of
+product in any country. Automatic machinery has almost dispelled the
+need for so-called skilled labor. East Indians, Mexicans, Japanese,
+Chinese, all become more or less efficient workers with a few month's
+experience. Manufacturing is therefore to spread rapidly throughout the
+world. All nations may be trusted to develop, and if necessary for a
+time protect, their natural resources as a patriotic duty. Only when
+prolonged trials have been made can it be <span class="pagenum">Pg. 181</span>determined which nation can
+best and most cheaply provide the articles for which raw material
+abounds.</p>
+
+<p>The visit to Paris enabled Watt and Boulton to make the acquaintance of
+the most eminent men of science, with whom they exchanged ideas
+afterward in frequent and friendly correspondence. Watt described
+himself as being, upon one occasion, "drunk from morning to night with
+Burgundy and undeserved praise." The latter was always a disconcerting
+draught for our subject; anything but reference to his achievements for
+the modest self-effacing genius.</p>
+
+<p>While in Paris, Berthollet told Watt of his new method of bleaching by
+chlorine, and gave him permission to communicate it to his
+father-in-law, who adopted it in his business, together with several
+improvements of Watt's invention, the results of a long series of
+experiments. Watt, writing to Mr. Macgregor, April 27, 1787, says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>In relation to the inventor, he is a man of science, a member of
+the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and a physician, not very
+rich, a very modest and worthy man, and an excellent chemist. My
+sole motives in meddling with it were to procure such reward as
+I could to a man of merit who had made an extensively useful
+discovery in the arts, and secondly, I had an immediate view to
+your interest; as to myself, I had no lucrative views
+whatsoever, it being a thing out of my way, which both my
+business and my health prevented me from pursuing further than
+it might serve for amusement when unfit for more serious
+business. Lately, by a letter from the inventor, he informs me
+that he gives up all intentions of pursuing it with lucrative
+views, as he says he will not compromise his quiet and happiness
+by engaging in business; in which, perhaps, he is <span class="pagenum">Pg. 182</span>right; but if
+the discovery has real merit, as I apprehend, he is certainly
+entitled to a generous reward, which I would wish for the honour
+of Britain, to procure for him; but I much fear, in the way you
+state it, that nothing could be got worth his acceptance.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>France has been distinguished for men of science who have thus refrained
+from profiting by their inventions. Pasteur, in our day, perhaps the
+most famous of all, the liver, not only of the simple but of the ideal
+life, laboring for the good of humanity&mdash;service to man&mdash;and taking for
+himself the simple life, free from luxury, palace, estate, and all the
+inevitable cares accompanying ostentatious living. Berthollet preceded
+him. Like Agassiz, these gifted souls were "too busy to make money."</p>
+
+<p>In 1792, when Boulton had passed the allotted three score years and ten,
+and Watt was over three score, they made a momentous decision which
+brought upon them several years of deep anxiety. Fortunately the sons of
+the veterans who had recently been admitted to the business proved of
+great service in managing the affair, and relieved their parents of much
+labor and many journeys. Fortunate indeed were Watt and Boulton in their
+partnership, for they became friends first and partners afterward. They
+were not less fortunate in each having a talented son, who also became
+friends and partners like their fathers before them. The decision was
+that the infringers of their patents were to be proceeded against. <span class="pagenum">Pg. 183</span>They
+had to appeal to the law to protect their rights.</p>
+
+<p>Watt met the apparently inevitable fate of inventors. Rivals arose in
+various quarters to dispute his right to rank as the originator of many
+improvements. No reflection need be made upon most rival claimants to
+inventions. Some wonderful result is conceived to be within the range of
+possibility, which, being obtained, will revolutionise existing modes. A
+score of inventive minds are studying the problem throughout the
+civilised world. Every day or two some new idea flashes upon one of them
+and vanishes, or is discarded after trial. One day the announcement
+comes of triumphant success with the very same idea slightly modified,
+the modification or addition, slight though this may be, making all the
+difference between failure and success. The man has arrived with the key
+that opens the door of the treasure-house. He sets the egg on end
+perhaps by as obvious a plan as chipping the end. There arises a chorus
+of strenuous claimants, each of whom had thought of that very device
+long ago. No doubt they did. They are honest in their protests and quite
+persuaded in their own minds that they, and not the Watt of the
+occasion, are entitled to the honor of original discovery. This very
+morning we read in the press a letter from the son of Morse, vindicating
+his father's right to rank as the father of the telegraph, a son of
+Vail, one of his collaborators, having claimed <span class="pagenum">Pg. 184</span>that his father, and not
+Morse, was the real inventor. The most august of all bodies of men,
+since its decisions overrule both Congress and President, the Supreme
+Court of the United States, has shown rare wisdom from its inception,
+and in no department more clearly than in that regarding the rights of
+inventors. No court has had such experience with patent claims, for no
+nation has a tithe of the number to deal with. Throughout its history,
+the court has attached more and more importance to two points: First, is
+the invention valuable? Second, who proved this in actual practice?
+These points largely govern its decisions.</p>
+
+<p>The law expenses of their suits seemed to Boulton and Watt exorbitant,
+even in that age of low prices compared to our own. One solicitors bill
+was for no less than $30,000, which caused Watt years afterward, when
+speaking of an enormous charge to say that "it would not have disgraced
+a London solicitor." When we find however, that this was for four years'
+services, the London solicitor appears in a different light. "In the
+whole affair," writes Watt to his friend Dr. Black, January 15, 1797,
+"nothing was so grateful to me as the zeal of our friends and the
+activity of our young men, which were unremitting."</p>
+
+<p>The first trial ended June 22, 1793, with a verdict for Watt and Boulton
+by the jury, subject to the opinion of the court as to the validity of
+the patent. On May 16, 1795, the case came on for judgment, <span class="pagenum">Pg. 185</span>when
+unfortunately the court was found divided, two for the patent and two
+against. Another case was tried December 16, 1796, with a special jury,
+before Lord Chief Justice Eyre; the verdict was again for the
+plaintiffs. Proceedings on a writ of error had the effect of affirming
+the result by the unanimous opinion of the four judges, before whom it
+was ably and fully argued on two occasions.</p>
+
+<p>The testimony of Professor Robison, Watt's intimate friend of youth in
+Glasgow, was understood to have been deeply impressive, and to have had
+a decisive effect upon judges and jury.</p>
+
+<p>All the claims of Watt were thus triumphantly sustained. The decision
+has always been considered of commanding importance to the law of
+patents in Britain, and was of vast consequence to the firm of Watt and
+Boulton pecuniarily. Heavy damages and costs were due from the actual
+defendants, and the large number of other infringers were also liable
+for damages. As was to have been expected, however, the firm remembered
+that to be merciful in the hour of victory and not to punish too hard a
+fallen foe, was a cardinal virtue. The settlements they made were
+considered most liberal and satisfactory to all. Watt used frequently
+long afterward to refer to his specifications as his old and well-tried
+friends. So indeed they proved, and many references to their wonderful
+efficiency were made.</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 186</div>
+<p>With the beginning of the new century, 1800, the original partnership of
+the famous firm of Boulton and Watt expired, after a term of twenty-five
+years, as did the patents of 1769 and 1775. The term of partnership had
+been fixed with reference to the duration of the patents. Young men in
+their prime, Watt at forty and Boulton about fifty when they joined
+hands, after a quarter-century of unceasing and anxious labor, were
+disposed to resign the cares and troubles of business to their sons. The
+partnership therefore was not renewed by them, but their respective
+shares in the firm were agreed upon as the basis of a new partnership
+between their sons, James Watt, Jr., Matthew Robinson Boulton and
+Gregory Watt, all distinguished for abilities of no mean order, and in a
+great degree already conversant with the business, which their wise
+fathers had seen fit for some years to entrust more and more to them.</p>
+
+<p>In nothing done by either of these two wise fathers is more wisdom shown
+than in their sagacious, farseeing policy in regard to their sons. As
+they themselves had been taught to concentrate their energies upon
+useful occupation, for which society would pay as for value received,
+they had doubtless often conferred, and concluded that was the happiest
+and best life for their sons, instead of allowing them to fritter away
+the precious years of youth in aimless frivolity, to be <span class="pagenum">Pg. 187</span>followed in
+later years by a disappointing and humiliating old age.</p>
+
+<p>So the partnership of Boulton and Watt was renewed in the union of the
+sons. Gregory Watt's premature death four years later was such a blow to
+his father that some think he never was quite himself again. Gregory had
+displayed brilliant talents in the higher pursuits of science and
+literature, in which he took delight, and great things had been
+predicted from him. With the other two sons the business connection
+continued without change for forty years, until, when old men, they also
+retired like their fathers. They proved to be great managers, for
+notwithstanding the cessation of the patents which opened
+engine-building free to all, the business of the firm increased and
+became much more profitable than it had ever been before; indeed toward
+the close of the original partnership, and upon the triumph gained in
+the patent suits, the enterprise became so profitable as fully to
+satisfy the moderate desire of Watt, and to provide a sure source of
+income for his sons. This met all his wishes and removed the fears of
+becoming dependent that had so long haunted him.</p>
+
+<p>The continued and increasing success of the Soho works was obviously
+owing to the new partners. They had some excellent assistants, but in
+the foremost place among all of them stands Murdoch, Watt's able,
+faithful and esteemed assistant for many years, who, both <span class="pagenum">Pg. 188</span>intellectually
+and in manly independence, was considered to exhibit no small
+resemblance to his revered master and friend. Never formally a partner
+in Soho (for he declined partnership as we have seen), he was placed on
+the footing of a partner by the sons in 1810, without risk, and received
+$5,000 per annum. From 1830 he lived in peaceful retirement and passed
+away in 1839. His remains were deposited in Handsworth Church near those
+of his friends and employers, Watt and Boulton (the one spot on earth he
+could have most desired). "A bust by Chantrey serves to perpetuate the
+remembrance of his manly and intelligent features, and of the mind of
+which these were a pleasing index." We may imagine the shades of Watt
+and Boulton, those friends so appropriately laid together, greeting
+their friend and employee: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant!"
+If ever there was one, Murdoch was the man, and Captain Jones his
+fellow.</p>
+
+<p>We have referred to Watt's suggestion of the screw-propeller, and of the
+sketch of it sent to Dr. Small, September 30, 1770. The only record of
+any earlier suggestion of steam is that of Jonathan Hulls, in 1736, and
+which he set forth in a pamphlet entitled "A Description and Draught of
+a Newly Invented Machine for carrying vessels or ships out of or into
+any Harbour, Port or River, against Wind or Tide or in a Calm"; London,
+1737. He described a large barge equipped with a Newcomen engine to be
+employed as a tug, <span class="pagenum">Pg. 189</span>fitted with fan (or paddle) wheels, towing a ship of
+war, but nothing further appears to have been done. Writing on this
+subject, Mr. Williamson says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>During his last visit to Greenock in 1816, Mr. Watt, in company
+with his friend, Mr. Walkinshaw&mdash;whom the author some years
+afterward heard relate the circumstance&mdash;made a voyage in a
+steamboat as far as Rothsay and back to Greenock&mdash;an excursion,
+which, in those days, occupied a greater portion of a whole day.
+Mr. Watt entered into conversation with the engineer of the
+boat, pointing out to him the method of "backing" the engine.
+With a footrule he demonstrated to him what was meant. Not
+succeeding, however, he at last, under the impulse of the ruling
+passion, threw off his overcoat, and, putting his hand to the
+engine himself, showed the practical application of his lecture.
+Previously to this, the "back-stroke" of the steamboat engine
+was either unknown, or not generally known. The practice was to
+stop the engine entirely a considerable time before the vessel
+reached the point of mooring, in order to allow for the gradual
+and natural diminution of her speed.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The naval review at Spithead, upon the close of the Crimean war in 1856,
+was the greatest up to that time. Ten vessels out of two hundred and
+fifty still had not steam power, but almost all the others were
+propelled by the screw&mdash;the spiral oar of Watt's letter of 1770&mdash;a
+red-letter day for the inventor.</p>
+
+<p>Watt's early interest in locomotive steam-carriages, dating from
+Robison's having thrown out the idea to him, was never lost. On August
+12, 1768, Dr. Small writes Watt, referring to the "peculiar improvements
+in them" the latter had made previous to that date. Seven months later
+he apprises Watt that "a patent for <span class="pagenum">Pg. 190</span>moving wheel-carriages by steam has
+been taken out by one Moore," adding "this comes of thy delays; do come
+to England with all possible speed." Watt replied "If linen-draper Moore
+does not use my engine to drive his chaises he can't drive them by
+steam." Here Watt hit the nail on the head; as with the steamship, so
+with the locomotive, his steam-engine was the indispensable power. In
+1786 he states that he has a carriage model of some size in hand "and am
+resolved to try if God will work a miracle in favor of these carriages."
+Watt's doubt was based on the fact that they would take twenty pounds of
+coal and two cubic feet of water per horse-power on the common roads.</p>
+
+<p>Another of Watt's recreations in his days of semi-retirement was the
+improvement of lamps. He wrote the famous inventor of the Argand burner
+fully upon the subject in August, 1787, and constructed some lamps which
+proved great successes.</p>
+
+<p>The following year he invented an instrument for determining the
+specific gravities of liquids, which was generally adopted.</p>
+
+<p>One of Watt's inventions was a new method of readily measuring distances
+by telescope, which he used in making his various surveys for canals.
+Such instruments are in general use to-day. Brough's treatise on
+"Mining" (10th ed., p. 228) gives a very complete account of them, and
+states that "the original <span class="pagenum">Pg. 191</span>instrument of this class is that invented by
+James Watt in 1771."</p>
+
+<p>In his leisure hours, Watt invented an ingenious machine for drawing in
+perspective, using the double parallel ruler, then very little known and
+not at all used as far as Watt knew. Watt reports having made from fifty
+to eighty of these machines, which went to various parts of the world.</p>
+
+<p>In 1810 Watt informs Berthollet that for several years he had felt
+unable, owing to the state of his health, to make chemical experiments.
+But idle he could not be; he must be at work upon something. As he often
+said, "without a hobby-horse, what is life?" So the saying is reported,
+but we may conclude that the "horse" is here an interpolation, for the
+difference between "a horse" and "a hobby" is radical&mdash;a man can get off
+a horse.</p>
+
+<p>Watt's next "hobby" fortunately became an engrossing occupation and kept
+him alert. This was a machine for copying sculpture. A machine he had
+seen in Paris for tracing and multiplying the dies of medals, suggested
+the other. After much labor and many experiments he did get some measure
+of success, and made a large head of Locke in yellow wood, and a small
+head of his friend Adam Smith.</p>
+
+<p>Long did Watt toil at the new hobby in the garret where it had been
+created, but the garret proved too <span class="pagenum">Pg. 192</span>hot in summer and too cold in winter.
+March 14, 1810, he writes Berthollet and Lev&egrave;que:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I still do a little in mechanics: a part of which, if I live to
+complete it, I shall have the honor of communicating to my
+friends in France.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He went steadily forward and succeeded in making some fine copies in
+1814. For one of Sappho he gives dates and the hours required for
+various parts, making a total of thirty-nine. Some censorious
+Sabbatarians discovered that the day he was employed one hour "doing her
+breast with 1/8th drill" was Sabbath, which in one who belonged to a
+strict Scottish Covenanter family, betokened a sad fall from grace. When
+we consider that his health was then precarious, that he was debarred
+from chemical experiments, and depended solely upon mechanical subjects;
+that in all probability it was a stormy day (Sunday, February 3, 1811),
+knowing also that "Satan finds mischief still for idle hands to do," we
+hope our readers will pardon him for yielding to the irresistible
+temptation, even if on the holy Sabbath day for once he could not "get
+off" his captivating hobby.</p>
+
+<p>The historical last workshop of the great worker with all its contents
+remains open to the public to-day just as it was when he passed away.
+Pilgrims from many lands visit it, as Shakespeare's birthplace, Burns'
+cottage, and Scott's Abbottsford attract their many thousands yearly. We
+recommend our readers to add to these this garret of Watt in their
+pilgrimages.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_6" id="Footnote_1_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_6"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Sinclair's "Development of the Locomotive" tends to deprive
+Stephenson of some part of his fame as inventor. Much importance is
+attached to Hedley's "Puffing Billy," 1813, which is pronounced to have
+been a commercial success. Sinclair, however, credits Stephenson with
+doing most of all men to introduce the Locomotive. As the final verdict
+may admit Hedley and cannot expel Stephenson from the temple of fame, we
+pass the sentence as written, leaving to future disputants to adjust
+rival claims.</p></div>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 193</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 194</div>
+<hr class="chapter" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 195</div>
+<p class="subtitle center smcap">The Record of the Steam Engine</p>
+
+<p>The Soho works, up to January, 1824, had completed 1164 steam engines,
+of a nominal horse-power of 25,945; from January, 1824, to 1854, 441
+engines, nominal horse-power, 25,278, making the total number 1605, of
+nominal horse-power, 51,223, and real horse-power, 167,319. Mulhall
+gives the total steam-power of the world as 50,150,000 horse-power in
+1888. In 1880 it was only 34,150,000. Thus in eight years it increased,
+say, fifty per cent. Assuming the same rate of increase from 1888 to
+1905, a similar period, it is to-day 75,000,000 nominal, which Engel
+says may be taken as one-half the effective power (vide Mulhall,
+"Steam," p. 546), the real horse-power in 1905 being 150,000,000. One
+horse-power raises ten tons a height of twelve inches per minute.
+Working eight hours, this is about 5,000 tons daily, or twelve times a
+man's work, and as the engine never tires, and can be run constantly, it
+follows that each horse-power it can exert equals thirty-six men's work;
+but, allowing for stoppages, let us say thirty men. The engines of a
+large ocean greyhound of 35,000 horse-power, running constantly from
+port to port, equal to three relays of <span class="pagenum">Pg. 196</span>twelve men per horse-power, is
+daily exerting the power of 1,260,000 men, or 105,000 horses. Assuming
+that all the steam engines in the world upon the average work double the
+hours of men, then the 150,000,000 horse-power in the world, each equal
+to two relays of twelve men per horse-power, exerts the power of
+3,600,000,000 of men. There are only one-tenth as many male adults in
+the world, estimating one in five of the population.</p>
+
+<p>If we assume that all steam engines work an average of only eight hours
+in the twenty-four, as men and horses do (those on duty longer hours are
+not under continuous exertion), it still follows that the 150,000,000 of
+effective steam-power, each doing the work of twelve men, equals the
+work of 1,800,000,000 of men, or of 150,000,000 of horses.</p>
+
+<p>Engel estimated that in 1880 the value of world industries dependent
+upon steam was thirty-two thousand millions of dollars, and that in 1888
+it had reached forty-three thousand millions of dollars. It is to-day
+doubtless more than sixty thousand millions of dollars, a great increase
+no doubt over 1880, but the one figure is as astounding as the other,
+for both mean nothing that can be grasped.</p>
+
+<p>The chief steam-using countries are America, 14,400,000 horse-power in
+1888; Britain, 9,200,000 horse-power nominal. If we add the British
+colonies and dependencies, 7,120,000 horse-power, the English-speaking
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 197</span>race had three-fifths of all the steam-power of the world.</p>
+
+<p>In 1840 Britain had only 620,000 horse-power nominal; the United States
+760,000; the whole world had only 1,650,000 horse-power. To-day it has
+75,000,000 nominal. So rapidly has steam extended its sway over most of
+the earth in less than the span of a man's life. There has never been
+any development in the world's history comparable to this, nor can we
+imagine that such a rapid transformation can ever come in the future.
+What the future is finally to bring forth even imagination is unable to
+conceive. No bounds can be set to its forthcoming possible, even
+probable, wonders, but as such a revolution as steam has brought must
+come from a superior force capable of displacing steam, this would
+necessarily be a much longer task than steam had in occupying an
+entirely new field without a rival.</p>
+
+<p>The contrast between Newcomen and Watt is interesting. The Newcomen
+engine consumed twenty-eight pounds of coal per horse-power and made not
+exceeding three to four strokes per minute, the piston moving about
+fifty feet per minute. To-day, steam marine engines on one and one-third
+pounds of coal per horse-power&mdash;the monster ships using less&mdash;make
+from seventy to ninety revolutions per minute. "Destroyers" reach 400
+per minute. Small steam engines, it is stated, have attained 600
+revolutions per minute. The piston <span class="pagenum">Pg. 198</span>to-day is supposed to travel
+moderately when at 1,000 feet per minute, in a cylinder three feet long.
+This gives 166 revolutions per minute. With coal under the boilers
+costing one dollar per net ton, from say five pounds of coal for one
+cent there is one horse-power for three hours, or a day and a night of
+continuous running for eight cents.</p>
+
+<p>Countless millions of men and of horses would be useless for the work of
+the steam-engine, for the seemingly miraculous quality steam possesses,
+that permits concentration, is as requisite as its expansive powers. One
+hundred thousand horse-power, or several hundred thousand horse-power,
+is placed under one roof and directed to the task required. Sixty-four
+thousand horse-power is concentrated in the hold of the great steamships
+now building. All this stupendous force is evolved, concentrated and
+regulated by science from the most unpromising of substances, cold
+water. Nothing man has discovered or imagined is to be named with the
+steam engine. It has no fellow. Franklin capturing the lightning, Morse
+annihilating space with the telegraph, Bell transmitting speech through
+the air by the telephone, are not less mysterious&mdash;being more
+ethereal, perhaps in one sense they are even more so&mdash;still, the labor
+of the world performed by heating cold water places Watt and his steam
+engine in a class apart by itself. Many are the inventions for applying
+power; his creates the power it applies.</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 199</div>
+<p>Whether the steam engine has reached its climax, and gas, oil, or other
+agents are to be used extensively for power, in the near future, is a
+question now debated in scientific circles. Much progress has been made
+in using these substitutes, and more is probable, as one obstacle after
+another is overcome. Gas especially is coming forward, and oil is freely
+used. For reasons before stated, it seems to the writer that, where coal
+is plentiful, the day is distant when steam will not continue to be the
+principal source of power. It will be a world surpriser that beats one
+horse-power developed by one pound of coal. The power to do much more
+than this, however, lies theoretically in gas, but there come these wise
+words of Arago to mind: "Persons whose whole lives have been devoted to
+speculative labours are not aware how great the distance is between a
+scheme, apparently the best concerted, and its realisation." So true!
+Watt's ideas in the brain, and the steam engine that he had to evolve
+during nine long years, are somewhat akin to the great gulf between
+resolve and performance, the "good resolution" that soothes and the
+"act" that exalts.</p>
+
+<p>The steam engine is Scotland's chief, tho not her only contribution to
+the material progress of the world. Watt was its inventor, we might
+almost write Creator, so multiform were the successive steps. Symington
+by the steamship stretched one arm of it over the water; Stephenson by
+the locomotive stretched the other over <span class="pagenum">Pg. 200</span>the land. Thus was the world
+brought under its sway and conditions of human life transformed. Watt
+and Symington were born in Scotland within a few miles of each other.
+Stephenson's forbears moved from Scotland south of the line previous to
+his birth, as Fulton's parents removed from Scotland to America, so that
+both Stephenson and Fulton could boast with Gladstone that the blood in
+their veins was Scotch.</p>
+
+<p>The history of the world has no parallel to the change effected by the
+inventions of these three men. Strange that little Scotland, with only
+1,500,000 people, in 1791, about one-half the population of New York
+City, should have been the mother of such a triad, and that her second
+"mighty three" (Wallace, Bruce and Burns always first), should have been
+of the same generation, working upon the earth near each other at the
+same time. The Watt engine appeared in 1782; the steamship in 1801; the
+locomotive thirteen years later, in 1814. Thus thirty-two years after
+its appearance Watt's steam-engine had conquered both sea and land.</p>
+
+<p>The sociologist may theorise, but plain people will remember that men do
+not gather grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles. There must be
+something in the soil which produces such men; something in the poverty
+that compels exertion; something in the "land of the mountain and the
+flood" that stirs the imagination; something in the history of centuries
+of struggle for national and spiritual independence; much <span class="pagenum">Pg. 201</span>in the system
+of compulsory and universal free education; something of all these
+elements mingling in the blood that tells, and enables Scotland to
+contribute so largely to the progress of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Strange reticence is shown by all Watt's historians regarding his
+religious and political views. Williamson, the earliest author of his
+memoirs, is full of interesting facts obtained from people in Greenock
+who had known Watt well. The hesitation shown by him as to Watt's
+orthodoxy in his otherwise highly eulogistic tribute, attracts
+attention. He says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>We could desire to know more of the state of those
+affections which are more purely spiritual by their nature and
+origin&mdash;his disposition to those supreme truths of Revelation,
+which alone really elevate and purify the soul. In the absence of much
+information of a very positive kind in regard to such points of
+character and life, we instinctively revert in a case like this to the
+principles and maxims of an infantile and early training. Remembering
+the piety portrayed in the ancestors of this great man, one cannot but
+cling to the hope that his many virtues reposed on a substratum of more
+than merely moral excellence. Let us cherish the hope that the calm
+which rested on the spirit of the pilgrim ... was one that caught its
+radiance from a far higher sphere than that of the purest human
+philosophy.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Watt's breaking of the Sabbath before recorded must have seemed to that
+stern Calvinist a heinous sin, justifying grave doubts of Watt's
+spiritual condition, his "moral excellence" to the contrary
+notwithstanding. Williamson's estimate of moral excellence had recently
+been described by Burns:</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 202</div>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But then, nae thanks to him for a' that,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nae godly symptom ye can ca' that,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It's naething but a milder feature<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of our poor sinfu' corrupt nature.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ye'll get the best o' moral works,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Many black gentoos and pagan works,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or hunters wild on Ponotaxi<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wha never heard of orthodoxy.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Williamson's doubts had much stronger foundation in Watt's
+non-attendance at church, for, as we shall see from his letter to DeLuc,
+July, 1788, he had never attended the "meeting-house" (dissenting
+church) in Birmingham altho he claimed to be still a member of the
+Presbyterian body in declining the sheriffalty.</p>
+
+<p>It seems probable that Watt, in his theological views, like Priestley
+and others of the Lunar Society, was in advance of his age, and more or
+less in accord with Burns, who was then astonishing his countrymen.
+Perhaps he had forstalled Dean Stanley's advice in his rectorial address
+to the students of St. Andrew's University: "go to Burns for your
+theology," yet he remained a deeply religious man to the end, as we see
+from his letter (page 216), at the age of seventy-six.</p>
+
+<p>We know that politically Watt was in advance of his times for the prime
+minister pronounced him "a sad radical." He was with Burns politically
+at all events. Watt's eldest son, then in Paris, was carried away by the
+French Revolution, and Muirhead suggests that the prime minister must
+have confounded <span class="pagenum">Pg. 203</span>father and son, but it seems unreasonable to suppose
+that he could have been so misled as to mistake the doings of the famous
+Watt in Birmingham for those of his impulsive son in France.</p>
+
+<p>The French Revolution exerted a powerful influence in Britain,
+especially in the north of England and south of Scotland, which have
+much in common. The Lunar Society of Birmingham was intensely
+interested. At one of the meetings in the summer of 1788, held at her
+father's house, Mrs. Schimmelpenniack records that Mr. Boulton presented
+to the company his son, just returned from a long sojourn in Paris, who
+gave a vivid account of proceedings there, Watt and Dr. Priestly being
+present. A few months later the revolution broke out. Young Harry
+Priestley, a son of the Doctor's, one evening burst into the
+drawing-room, waving his hat and crying, "Hurrah! Liberty, Reason,
+Brotherly Love forever! Down with kingcraft and priestcraft! The majesty
+of the people forever! France is free!" Dr. Priestley was deeply stirred
+and became the most prominent of all in the cause of the rights of man.
+He hailed the acts of the National Assembly abolishing monarchy,
+nobility and church. He was often engaged in discussions with the local
+clergy on theological dogmas. He wrote a pamphlet upon the French
+Revolution, and Burke attacked him in the House of Commons. All this
+naturally concentrated local opposition upon him as leader. The
+enthusiasts <span class="pagenum">Pg. 204</span>mistakenly determined to have a public dinner to celebrate
+the anniversary of the Revolution, and no less than eighty gentlemen
+attended, altho many advised against it. Priestley himself was not
+present. A mob collected outside and demolished the windows. The cry was
+raised, "To the new meeting-house!" the chapel in which Priestley
+ministered. The chapel was set on fire. Thence the riot proceeded to
+Priestley's house. The doctor and his family, being warned, had left
+shortly before. The house was at the mercy of the mob, which broke in,
+destroyed furniture, chemical laboratory and library, and finally set
+fire to the house. Some of the very best citizens suffered in like
+manner. Mr. Ryland, one of the most munificent benefactors of the town,
+Mr. Taylor, the banker, and Hutton, the estimable book-seller, were
+among the number. The home of Dr. Withering, member of the Lunar
+Society, was entered, but the timely arrival of troops saved it from
+destruction. The members of the Lunar Society, or the "lunatics," as
+they were popularly called, were especially marked for attack. The mob
+cried, "No philosophers!" "Church and King forever!" All this put
+Boulton and Watt upon their guard, for they were prominent members of
+the society. They called their workmen together, explained the
+criminally of the rioters, and placed arms in their hands on their
+promise to defend them if attacked. Meanwhile everything portable was
+packed up ready to be removed.</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 205</div>
+<p>Watt wrote to Mr. DeLuc, July 19, 1791:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Though our principles, which are well known, as friends to the
+established government and enemies of republican principles,
+should have been our protection from a mob whose watchword was
+Church and King, yet our safety was principally owing to most of
+the Dissenters living south of the town; for after the first
+moment they did not seem over-nice in their discrimination of
+religion and principles. I, among others, was pointed out as a
+Presbyterian, though I never was in a meeting-house (Dissenting
+Church) in Birmingham, and Mr. Boulton is well-known as a
+Churchman. We had everything most portable packed up, fearing
+the worst. However, all is well with us.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>From all this we gather the impression that Radical principles had
+permeated the leading minds of Birmingham to a considerable extent,
+probably around the Lunar Society district in greater measure than in
+other quarters, altho clubs of ardent supporters were formed in London
+and the principal provincial cities.</p>
+
+<p>In the political field, we have only one appearance of Watt reported.
+Early in 1784, we find him taking the lead in getting up a loyal address
+to the king on the appointment as prime minister of Pitt, who proposed
+to tax coal, iron, copper and other raw materials of manufacture to the
+amount of $5,000,000 per year, a considerable sum in those days when
+manufacturing was in its infancy. Boulton also joined in opposition.
+They wisely held that for a manufacturing nation "to tax raw materials
+was suicidal: let taxes be laid upon luxuries, upon vices, and, if you
+like, upon <span class="pagenum">Pg. 206</span>property; tax riches when got, but not the means of getting
+them. Of all things don't cut open the hen that lays the golden eggs."</p>
+
+<p>Watt's services were enlisted and he drew up a paper for circulation
+upon the subject. The policy failed, and soon after Pitt was converted
+to sounder doctrines by Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." Free trade has
+ruled Britain ever since, and, being the country that could manufacture
+cheapest, and indeed, the only manufacturing country for many years,
+this policy has made her the richest, per capita, of all nations. The
+day may be not far distant when America, soon to be the cheapest
+manufacturing country for many, as it already is for a few, staple
+articles, will be crying for free trade, and urging free entrance to the
+markets of the world. To tax the luxuries and vices, to tax wealth got
+and not in the making, as proposed by Watt and Boulton, is the policy to
+follow. Watt shows himself to have been a profound economist.</p>
+
+<p>Watt had cause for deep anxiety for his eldest son, James, who had taken
+an active part in the agitation. He and his friend, Mr. Cooper of
+Manchester, were appointed deputies by the "Constitutional Society," to
+proceed to Paris and present an address of congratulation to the Jacobin
+Club. Young Watt was carried away, and became intimate with the leaders.
+Southey says he actually prevented a duel between Danton and Robespierre
+by appearing on the ground and remonstrating <span class="pagenum">Pg. 207</span>with them, pointing out
+that if either fell the cause must suffer.</p>
+
+<p>Upon young Watt's return, king's messengers arrived in Birmingham and
+seized persons concerned in seditious correspondence. Watt suggests that
+Boulton should see his son and arrange for his leaving for America, or
+some foreign land, for a time. This proved to be unnecessary; his son
+was not arrested, and in a short time all was forgotten. He entered the
+works with Boulton's son as partner, and became an admirable manager.
+To-day we regard his mild republicanism, his alliance with Jacobin
+leaders, and especially his bold intervention in the quarrel between two
+of the principal actors in the tragedy of the French Revolution, as "a
+ribbon in the cap of youth." That his douce father did the same and was
+proud of his eldest born seems probable. Our readers will also judge for
+themselves whether the proud father had not himself a strong liking for
+democratic principles, "the rights of the people," "the royalty of man,"
+which Burns was then blazing forth, and held such sentiments as quite
+justified the prime minister's accusation that he was "a sad radical."</p>
+
+<p>In Britain, since Watt's day, all traces of opposition to monarchy
+aroused by the French Revolution have disappeared, as completely as the
+monarchy of King George. The "limited monarchy" of to-day, developed
+during the admirable reign of Queen Victoria, has <span class="pagenum">Pg. 208</span>taken its place. The
+French abolished monarchy by a frontal attack upon the citadel,
+involving serious loss. Not such the policy of the colder Briton. He won
+his great victory, losing nothing, by flanking the position. That the
+king "could do no wrong," is a doctrine almost coeval with modern
+history, flowing from the "divine right" of kings, and, as such, was
+quietly accepted. It needed only to be properly harnessed to become a
+very serviceable agent for registering the people's will.</p>
+
+<p>It was obvious that the acceptance of the doctrine that the king could
+do no wrong involved the duty of proving the truth of the axiom, and it
+was equally obvious that the only possible way of doing this was that
+the king should not be allowed to do anything. Hence he was made the
+mouthpiece of his ministers, and it is not the king, but they, who,
+being fallible men, may occasionally err. The monarch, in losing power
+to do anything has gained power to influence everything. The ministers
+hold office through the approval of the House of Commons. Members of
+that house are elected by the people. Thus stands government in Britain
+"broad-based upon the people's will."</p>
+
+<p>All that the revolutionists of Watt's day desired has, in substance,
+been obtained, and Britain has become in truth a "crowned republic,"
+with "government of the people, for the people, and by the people." This
+steady and beneficent development was peaceably <span class="pagenum">Pg. 209</span>attained. The difference
+between the French and British methods is that between revolution and
+evolution.</p>
+
+<p>In America's political domain, a similar evolution has been even more
+silently at work than in Britain during the past century, and is not yet
+exhausted&mdash;the transformation of a loose confederacy of sovereign
+states, with different laws, into one solid government, which assumes
+control and insures uniformity over one department after another. The
+centripetal forces grow stronger with the years; power leaves the
+individual states and drifts to Washington, as the necessity for each
+successive change becomes apparent. In the regulation of interstate
+commerce, of trusts, and in other fields, final authority over the whole
+land gravitates more and more to Washington. It is a beneficent
+movement, likely to result in uniform national laws upon many subjects
+in which present diversity creates confusion. Marriage and divorce laws,
+bankruptcy laws, corporation charter privileges, and many other
+important questions may be expected to become uniform under this
+evolutionary process. The Supreme Court decision that the Union was an
+indissoluble union of indissoluble states, carries with it finally
+uniform regulation of many interstate problems, in every respect
+salutary, and indispensable for the perfect union of the American
+people.</p>
+
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 210</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 211</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 212</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 213</div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<p class="subtitle center smcap">Watt in Old Age</p>
+
+<p>Watt gracefully glided into old age. This is the great test of success
+in life. To every stage a laurel, but to happy old age the crown. It was
+different with his friend Boulton, who continued to frequent the works
+and busy himself in affairs much as before, altho approaching his
+eightieth year. Watt could still occupy himself in his garret, where his
+"mind to him a Kingdom was," upon the scientific pursuits which charmed
+him. He revisited Paris in 1802 and renewed acquaintances with his old
+friends, with whom he spent five weeks. He frequently treated himself to
+tours throughout England, Scotland and Wales. In the latter country, he
+purchased a property which attracted him by its beauties, and which he
+greatly improved. It became at a later date, under his son, quite an
+extensive estate, much diversified, and not lacking altogether the stern
+grandeur of his native Scotland. He planted trees and took intense
+delight in his garden, being very fond of flowers. The farmhouse gave
+him a comfortable home upon his visits. The fine woods which now richly
+clothe the valley and agreeably <span class="pagenum">Pg. 214</span>diversify the river and mountain scenery
+were chiefly planted under his superintendence, many by his own hand. In
+short, the blood in his veins, the lessons of his childhood that made
+him a "child of the mist," happy in roaming among the hills, reasserted
+their power in old age as the Celtic element powerfully does. He turned
+more and more to nature.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"That never yet betrayed the heart that loved her&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We see him strolling through his woods, and imagine him crooning to
+himself from that marvellous memory that forgot no gem:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i16">For I have learned<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To look on nature, not as in the hour<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The still, sad music of humanity,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To chasten and subdue. And I have felt<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A presence that disturbs me with the joy<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of something far more deeply interfused,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the round ocean and the living air,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A motion and a spirit, that impels<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">All thinking things, all objects of all thought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A lover of the meadows and the woods,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And mountains; and of all that we behold<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">From this green earth.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Twice Watt was requested to undertake the honor of the shrievalty; in
+1803 that of Staffordshire, and in <span class="pagenum">Pg. 215</span>1816 that of Radnorshire, both of
+which were positively declined.</p>
+
+<p>He finally found it necessary to declare that he was not a member of the
+Church of England, but of the Presbyterian church of Scotland, a reason
+which in that day was conclusive.</p>
+
+<p>In 1816, he was in his eighty-first year, and no difficulty seems then
+to have been found for excusing him, for it seems the assumption of the
+duties was compulsory. It was "the voice of age resistless in its
+feebleness."</p>
+
+<p>The day had come when Watt awakened to one of the saddest of all truths,
+that his friends were one by one rapidly passing away, the circle ever
+narrowing, the few whose places never could be filled becoming fewer, he
+in the centre left more and more alone. Nothing grieved Watt so much as
+this. In 1794 his partner, Roebuck, fell; in 1799, his inseparable
+friend, and supporter in his hour of need, Dr. Black, and also Withering
+of the Lunar Society; and in 1802 Darwin "of the silver song," one of
+his earliest English friends. In 1804, his brilliant son Gregory died, a
+terrible shock. In 1805, his first Glasgow College intimate, Robison;
+Dr. Beddoes in 1808; Boulton, his partner, in 1809; Dr. Wilson in 1811;
+DeLuc in 1817. Many other friends of less distinction fell in these
+years who were not less dear to him. He says, "by one friend's
+withdrawing after another," he felt himself "in danger of standing alone
+among strangers, the son of later times."</p>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 216</div>
+<p>He writes to Boulton on November 23, 1802:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>We cannot help feeling, with deep regret, the circle of our old
+friends gradually diminishing, while our ability to increase it
+by new ones is equally diminished; but perhaps it is a wise
+dispensation of Providence so to diminish our enjoyments in this
+world, that when our turn comes we may leave it without regret.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He writes to another correspondent, July 12, 1810:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I, in particular, have reason to thank God that he has preserved
+me so well as I am, to so late a period, while the greater part
+of my contemporaries, healthier and younger men, have passed
+"the bourne from which no traveller returns." It is, however, a
+painful contemplation to see so many who were dear to us pass
+away before us; and our consolation should be, that as
+Providence has been pleased to prolong our life, we should
+render ourselves as useful to society as we can while we live.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>And again, when seventy-six years of age, January, 1812, he writes:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>On these subjects I can offer no other consolations than what
+are derived from religion: they have only gone before us a
+little while, in that path we all must tread, and we should be
+thankful they were spared so long to their friends and the
+world.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Sir Walter Scott declares:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>That is the worst part of life when its earlier path is trod. If
+my limbs get stiff, my walks are made shorter, and my rides
+slower; if my eyes fail me, I can use glasses and a large print:
+if I get a little deaf, I comfort myself that except in a few
+instances I shall be no great loser by missing one full half of
+what is spoken: <i>but I feel the loneliness of age when my
+companions and friends are taken from me.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>All his life until retiring from business, Watt's care was to obtain
+sufficient for the support of himself and family upon the most modest
+scale. He had no <span class="pagenum">Pg. 217</span>surplus to devote to ends beyond self, but as soon as
+he retired with a small competence it was different, and we accordingly
+find him promptly beginning to apply some portion of his still small
+revenue to philanthropical ends. Naturally, his thoughts reverted first
+to his native town and the university to which he owed so much.</p>
+
+<p>In 1808 he founded the Watt Prize in Glasgow University, saying:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Entertaining a due sense of the many favours conferred upon me
+by the University of Glasgow, I wish to leave them some memorial
+of my gratitude, and, at the same time, to excite a spirit of
+inquiry and exertion among the students of Natural Philosophy
+and Chemistry attending the College; which appears to me the
+more useful, as the very existence of Britain, as a nation,
+seems to me, in great measure, to depend upon her exertions in
+science and in the arts.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The University conferred the degree of LL.D. upon him in 1774, and its
+great engineering laboratory bears his name.</p>
+
+<p>In 1816, he made a donation to the town of Greenock for scientific
+books, stating it to be his intention</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>to form the beginning of a scientific library for the
+instruction of the youth of Greenock, in the hope of prompting
+others to add to it, and of rendering his townsmen as eminent
+for their knowledge as they are for the spirit of enterprise.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This has grown to be a library containing 15,000 volumes, and is a
+valuable adjunct of the Watt Institution, founded by his son in memory
+of his father, which is to-day the educational centre of Greenock. Its
+entrance is adorned by a remarkably <span class="pagenum">Pg. 218</span>fine statue of Watt, funds for which
+were raised by public subscription.</p>
+
+<p>Many societies honored the great inventor. He was a fellow of the Royal
+Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of London, Member of the
+Batavian Society, correspondent of the French Academy of Sciences, and
+was one of the eight Foreign Associates of the French Academy of
+Sciences.</p>
+
+<p>Watt's almost morbid dislike for publicity leaves many well-known acts
+of kindness and charity hidden from all save the recipients. Muirhead
+assures us that such gifts as we can well believe were not wanting.
+Watt's character as a kindly neighbor always stood high. He was one of
+those "who will not receive a reward for that for which God accounts
+Himself a debtor&mdash;persons that dare trust God with their charity, and
+without a witness."</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1819 an illness of no great apparent severity caused
+some little anxiety to Watt's family, and was soon recognised by himself
+as the messenger sent to apprise him of his end. This summons he met
+with the calm and tranquil mind, that, looking backward, could have
+found little of serious nature to repent, and looking forward, found
+nothing to fear. "He often expressed his gratitude to the Giver of All
+Good who had so signally prospered the work of his hands and blessed him
+with length of days and riches and honour." On August 19, 1819, aged 83,
+in his own home at Heathfield, he tranquilly <span class="pagenum">Pg. 219</span>breathed his last, deeply
+mourned by all who were privileged to know him. In the parish
+churchyard, alongside of Boulton, he was most appropriately laid to
+rest. Thus the two strong men, lifelong friends and partners, who had
+never had a serious difference, "lovely and pleasant in their lives, in
+their death were not divided."</p>
+
+<p>It may be doubted whether there be on record so charming a business
+connection as that of Boulton and Watt; in their own increasingly close
+union for twenty-five years, and, at its expiration, in the renewal of
+that union in their sons under the same title; in their sons' close
+union as friends without friction as in the first generation; in the
+wonderful progress of the world resulting from their works; in their
+lying down side by side in death upon the bosom of Mother Earth in the
+quiet churchyard, as they had stood side by side in the battle of life;
+and in the faithful servant Murdoch joining them at the last, as he had
+joined them in his prime. In the sweet and precious influences which
+emanate from all this, may we not gratefully make acknowledgment that in
+contemplation thereof we are lifted into a higher atmosphere, refreshed,
+encouraged, and bettered by the true story of men like ourselves, whom
+if we can never hope to equal, we may at least try in part to imitate.</p>
+
+<p>A meeting was called in London to take steps for a monument to Watt to
+be placed in Westminster <span class="pagenum">Pg. 220</span>Abbey. The prime minister presided and
+announced a subscription of five hundred pounds sterling from His
+Majesty. It may truly be said that</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>A meeting more distinguished by rank, station and talent, was
+never before assembled to do honour to genius, and to modest and
+retiring worth; and a more spontaneous, noble, and
+discriminating testimony was never borne to the virtues,
+talents, and public services of any individual, in any age or
+country.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The result was the colossal statue by Chantrey which bears the following
+inscription, pronounced to be beyond comparison "the finest lapidary
+inscription in the English language." It is from the pen of Lord
+Brougham:</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+NOT TO PERPETUATE A NAME<br />
+WHICH MUST ENDURE WHILE THE PEACEFUL ARTS FLOURISH<br />
+BUT TO SHEW<br />
+THAT MANKIND HAVE LEARNT TO HONOUR THOSE<br />
+WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE<br />
+THE KING<br />
+HIS MINISTERS, AND MANY OF THE NOBLES<br />
+AND COMMONERS OF THE REALM<br />
+RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO<br />
+JAMES WATT<br />
+WHO DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL GENIUS<br />
+EARLY EXERCISED IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH<br />
+TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF<br />
+THE STEAM-ENGINE<br />
+ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OF HIS COUNTRY<br />
+INCREASED THE POWER OF MAN<br />
+AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE<br />
+AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF SCIENCE<br />
+AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD<br />
+BORN AT GREENOCK MDCCXXXVI<br />
+DIED AT HEATHFIELD IN STAFFORDSHIRE MDCCCXIX<br />
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 221</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 222</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter" />
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 223</div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<p class="subtitle center smcap">Watt, the Inventor and Discoverer</p>
+
+<p>In the foregoing pages an effort has been made to follow and describe
+Watt's work in detail as it was performed, but we believe our readers
+will thank us for presenting the opinions of a few of the highest
+scientific and legal authorities upon what Watt really did. Lord
+Brougham has this to say of Watt:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>One of the most astonishing circumstances in this truly great
+man was the versatility of his talents. His accomplishments were
+so various, the powers of his mind were so vast, and yet of such
+universal application, that it was hard to say whether we should
+most admire the extraordinary grasp of his understanding, or the
+accuracy of nice research with which he could bring it to bear
+upon the most minute objects of investigation. I forget of whom
+it was said, that his mind resembled the trunk of an elephant,
+which can pick up straws and tear up trees by the roots. Mr.
+Watt in some sort resembled the greatest and most celebrated of
+his own inventions; of which we are at a loss whether most to
+wonder at the power of grappling with the mightiest objects, or
+of handling the most minute; so that while nothing seems too
+large for its grasp, nothing seems too small for the delicacy of
+its touch; which can cleave rocks and pour forth rivers from the
+bowels of the earth, and with perfect exactness, though not with
+greater ease, fashion the head of a pin, or strike the impress
+of some curious die. Now those who knew Mr. Watt, had to
+contemplate a man whose genius could create such an engine, and
+indulge in the most abstruse speculations of philosophy, and
+could at once pass from the most <span class="pagenum">Pg. 224</span>sublime researches of geology
+and physical astronomy, the formation of our globe, and the
+structure of the universe, to the manufacture of a needle or a
+nail; who could discuss in the same conversation, and with equal
+accuracy, if not with the same consummate skill, the most
+forbidding details of art, and the elegances of classical
+literature; the most abstruse branches of science, and the
+niceties of verbal criticism.</p>
+
+<p>There was one quality in Mr. Watt which most honorably
+distinguished him from too many inventors, and was worthy of all
+imitation; he was not only entirely free from jealousy, but he
+exercised a careful and scrupulous self-denial, and was anxious
+not to appear, even by accident, as appropriating to himself
+that which he thought belonged in part to others. I have heard
+him refuse the honor universally ascribed to him, of being
+inventor of the steam-engine, and call himself simply its
+improver; though, in my mind, to doubt his right to that honor
+would be as inaccurate as to question Sir Isaac Newton's claim
+to his greatest discoveries, because Descartes in mathematics,
+and Galileo in astronomy and mechanics, had preceded him; or to
+deny the merits of his illustrious successor, because galvanism
+was not his discovery, though before his time it had remained as
+useless to science as the instrument called a steam-engine was
+to the arts before Mr. Watt. The only jealousy I have known him
+betray was with respect to others, in the nice adjustment he was
+fond of giving to the claims of inventors. Justly prizing
+scientific discovery above all other possessions, he deemed the
+title to it so sacred, that you might hear him arguing by the
+hour to settle disputed rights; and if you ever perceived his
+temper ruffled, it was when one man's invention was claimed by,
+or given to, another; or when a clumsy adulation pressed upon
+himself that which he knew to be not his own.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Sir Humphrey Davy says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>I consider it as a duty incumbent on me to endeavor to set forth
+his peculiar and exalted merits, which live in the recollection
+of his contemporaries and will transmit his name with immortal
+glory to posterity. Those who consider James Watt only as a
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 225</span>great practical mechanic form a very erroneous idea of his
+character; he was equally distinguished as a natural philosopher
+and a chemist, and his inventions demonstrate his profound
+knowledge of those sciences, and that peculiar characteristic of
+genius, the union of them for practical application. The steam
+engine before his time was a rude machine, the result of simple
+experiments on the compression of the atmosphere, and the
+condensation of steam. Mr. Watt's improvements were not produced
+by accidental circumstances or by a single ingenious thought;
+they were founded on delicate and refined experiments, connected
+with the discoveries of Dr. Black. He had to investigate the
+cause of the cold produced by evaporation, of the heat
+occasioned by the condensation of steam&mdash;to determine the source
+of the air appearing when water was acted upon by an exhausting
+power; the ratio of the volume of steam to its generating water,
+and the law by which the elasticity of steam increased with the
+temperature; labor, time, numerous and difficult experiments,
+were required for the ultimate result; and when his principle
+was obtained, the application of it to produce the movement of
+machinery demanded a new species of intellectual and
+experimental labor.</p>
+
+<p>The Archimedes of the ancient world by his mechanical inventions
+arrested the course of the Romans, and stayed for a time the
+downfall of his country. How much more has our modern Archimedes
+done? He has permanently elevated the strength and wealth of his
+great empire: and, during the last long war, his inventions; and
+their application were amongst the great means which enabled
+Britain to display power and resources so infinitely above what
+might have been expected from the numerical strength of her
+population. Archimedes valued principally abstract science;
+James Watt, on the contrary, brought every principle to some
+practical use; and, as it were, made science descend from heaven
+to earth. The great inventions of the Syracusan died with
+him&mdash;those of our philosopher live, and their utility and
+importance are daily more felt; they are among the grand results
+which place civilised above savage man&mdash;which secure the triumph
+of intellect, and exalt genius and moral force over mere brutal
+strength, courage and numbers.</p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 226</div>
+<p>Sir James Mackintosh says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>It may be presumptuous in me to add anything in my own words to
+such just and exalted praise. Let me rather borrow the language
+in which the great father of modern philosophy, Lord Bacon
+himself, has spoken of inventors in the arts of life. In a
+beautiful, though not very generally read fragment of his,
+called the New Atlantis, a voyage to an imaginary island, he has
+imagined a university, or rather royal society, under the name
+of Solomon's House, or the College of the Six Days' Works; and
+among the various buildings appropriated to this institution, he
+describes a gallery destined to contain the statues of
+inventors. He does not disdain to place in it not only the
+inventor of one of the greatest instruments of science, but the
+discoverer of the use of the silkworm, and of other still more
+humble contrivances for the comfort of man. What place would
+Lord Bacon have assigned in such a gallery to the statue of Mr.
+Watt? Is it too much to say, that, considering the magnitude of
+the discoveries, the genius and science necessary to make them,
+and the benefits arising from them to the world, that statue
+must have been placed at the head of those of all inventors in
+all ages and nations. In another part of his writings the same
+great man illustrates the dignity of useful inventions by one of
+those happy allusions to the beautiful mythology of the
+ancients, which he often employs to illuminate as well as to
+decorate reason. "The dignity," says he, "of this end of
+endowment of man's life with new commodity appeareth, by the
+estimation that antiquity made of such as guided thereunto; for
+whereas founders of states, lawgivers, extirpators of tyrants,
+fathers of the people, were honored but with the titles of
+demigods, inventors were ever consecrated amongst the gods
+themselves."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The Earl of Aberdeen says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>It would ill become me to attempt to add to the eulogy which you
+have already heard on the distinguished individual whose genius
+and talents we have met this day to acknowledge. That eulogy has
+been pronounced by those whose praises are well calculated to
+confer honor, even upon him whose name does honor to his
+country. I feel in common with them, although I can but ill
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 227</span>express that intense admiration which the bare recollection of
+those discoveries must excite, which have rendered us familiar
+with a power before nearly unknown, and which have taught us to
+wield, almost at will, perhaps the mightiest instrument ever
+intrusted to the hands of man. I feel, too, that in erecting a
+monument to his memory, placed, as it may be, among the
+memorials of kings, and heroes, and statesmen, and philosophers,
+that it will be then in its proper place; and most in its proper
+place, if in the midst of those who have been most distinguished
+by their usefulness to mankind, and by the spotless integrity of
+their lives.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Lord Jeffrey says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>This name fortunately needs no commemoration of ours; for he
+that bore it survived to see it crowned with undisputed and
+unenvied honors; and many generations will probably pass away,
+before it shall have gathered "all its fame." We have said that
+Mr. Watt was the great <i>improver</i> of the steam engine; but, in
+truth, as to all that is admirable in its structure, or vast in
+its utility, he should rather be described as its <i>inventor</i>. It
+was by his inventions that its action was so regulated, as to
+make it capable of being applied to the finest and most delicate
+manufactures, and its power so increased, as to set weight and
+solidity at defiance. By his admirable contrivance, it has
+become a thing stupendous alike for its force and its
+flexibility, for the prodigious power which it can exert, and
+the ease, and precision, and ductility, with which it can be
+varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant, that
+can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It can
+engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal before it;
+draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and
+lift a ship of war like a bauble in the air. It can embroider
+muslin and forge anchors, cut steel into ribbons, and impel
+loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves.</p>
+
+<p>It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits
+which these inventions have conferred upon this country. There
+is no branch of industry that has not been indebted to them;
+and, in all the most material, they have not only widened most
+magnificently the field of its exertions, but multiplied a
+thousandfold the amount <span class="pagenum">Pg. 228</span>of its productions. It is our improved
+steam engine that has fought the battles of Europe, and exalted
+and sustained, through the late tremendous contest, the
+political greatness of our land. It is the same great power
+which now enables us to pay the interest of our debt, and to
+maintain the arduous struggle in which we are still engaged
+(1819), with the skill and capital of countries less oppressed
+with taxation. But these are poor and narrow views of its
+importance. It has increased indefinitely the mass of human
+comforts and enjoyments, and rendered cheap and accessible, all
+over the world, the materials of wealth and prosperity. It has
+armed the feeble hand of man, in short, with a power to which no
+limits can be assigned; completed the dominion of mind over the
+most refractory qualities of matter; and laid a sure foundation
+for all those future miracles of mechanical power which are to
+aid and reward the labors of after generations. It is to the
+genius of one man, too, that all this is mainly owing; and
+certainly no man ever bestowed such a gift on his kind. The
+blessing is not only universal, but unbounded; and the fabled
+inventors of the plough and the loom, who were deified by the
+erring gratitude of their rude contemporaries, conferred less
+important benefits on mankind than the inventor of our present
+steam engine.</p>
+
+<p>This will be the fame of Watt with future generations; and it is
+sufficient for his race and his country. But to those to whom he
+more immediately belonged, who lived in his society and enjoyed
+his conversation, it is not, perhaps, the character in which he
+will be most frequently recalled&mdash;most deeply lamented&mdash;or even
+most highly admired.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We shall end by quoting the greatest living authority, Lord Kelvin, now
+Lord Chancellor of Glasgow University, which Watt and he have done so
+much to render famous:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Precisely that single-acting, high-pressure, syringe-engine,
+made and experimented on by James Watt one hundred and forty
+years ago in his Glasgow College workshop, now in 1901, with the
+addition of a surface-condenser cooled by air to receive the
+waste steam, <span class="pagenum">Pg. 229</span>and a pump to return the water thence to the
+boiler, constitutes the common-road motor, which, in the opinion
+of many good judges, is the most successful of all the different
+motors which have been made and tried within the last few years.
+Without a condenser, Watt's high-pressure, single-acting engine
+of 1761, only needs the cylinder-cover with piston-rod passing
+steam-tight through it (as introduced by Watt himself in
+subsequent developments), and the valves proper for admitting
+steam on both sides of the piston and for working expansively,
+to make it the very engine, which, during the whole of the past
+century, has done practically all the steam work of the world,
+and is doing it still, except on the sea or lakes or rivers,
+where there is plenty of condensing water. Even the double and
+triple and quadruple expansion engines, by which the highest
+modern economy for power and steam engines has been obtained,
+are splendid mechanical developments of the principle of
+expansion, discovered and published by Watt, and used, though to
+a comparatively limited extent, in his own engines.</p></blockquote>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<blockquote><p>Thus during the five years from 1761-66 Watt had worked out all
+the principles and invented all that was essential in the
+details for realising them in the most perfect steam engines of
+the present day.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>So passes Watt from view as the discoverer and inventor of the "most
+powerful instrument in the hands of man to alter the face of the
+physical world." He takes his place "at the head of all inventors of all
+ages and all nations."</p>
+
+
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 230</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 231</div>
+<div><br /></div>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 232</div>
+
+<hr class="chapter"/>
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 233</div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<p class="subtitle center smcap">Watt, the Man</p>
+
+
+<p>Of Watt, the genius, possessed of abilities far beyond those of other
+men, a scientist and philosopher, a mechanician and a craftsman, one who
+gravitated without effort to the top of every society, and who, even
+when a young workman, made his workshop the meeting-place of the leaders
+of Glasgow University for the interchange of views upon the highest and
+most abstruse subjects&mdash;with all this we have already dealt, but it is
+only part, and not the nobler part. He excelled all his fellows in
+knowledge, but there is much beyond mere knowledge in man. Strip Watt of
+all those commanding talents that brought him primacy without effort,
+for no man ever avoided precedence more persistently than he, and the
+question still remains: what manner of man was he, as man? Surely our
+readers would esteem the task but half done that revealed only what was
+unusual in Watt's head. What of his heart? is naturally asked. We hasten
+to record that in the domain of the personal graces and virtues, we have
+evidence of his excellence as copious and assured as for his
+pre-eminence in invention and discovery.</p>
+
+<p>We cite the testimony of those who knew him best. <span class="pagenum">Pg. 234</span>It is seldom that a
+great man is so fortunate in his eulogists. The picture drawn of him by
+his friend, Lord Jeffrey, must rank as one of the finest ever produced,
+as portrait and tribute combined. That it is a discriminating statement,
+altho so eulogistic, may well be accepted, since numerous contributory
+proofs are given by others of Watt's personal characteristics. Says Lord
+Jeffrey:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Independently of his great attainments in mechanics, Mr. Watt
+was an extraordinary, and in many respects a wonderful man.
+Perhaps no individual in his age possessed so much and such
+varied and exact information&mdash;had read so much, or remembered
+what he had read so accurately and well. He had infinite
+quickness of apprehension, a prodigious memory, and a certain
+rectifying and methodising power of understanding, which
+extracted something precious out of all that was presented to
+it. His stores of miscellaneous knowledge were immense, and yet
+less astonishing than the command he had at all times over them.
+It seemed as if every subject that was casually started in
+conversation with him, had been that which he had been last
+occupied in studying and exhausting; such was the copiousness,
+the precision, and the admirable clearness of the information
+which he poured out upon it without effort or hesitation. Nor
+was this promptitude and compass of knowledge confined in any
+degree to the studies connected with his ordinary pursuits. That
+he should have been minutely and extensively skilled in
+chemistry and the arts, and in most of the branches of physical
+science, might perhaps have been conjectured; but it could not
+have been inferred from his usual occupations, and probably is
+not generally known, that he was curiously learned in many
+branches of antiquity, metaphysics, medicine, and etymology, and
+perfectly at home in all the details of architecture, music and
+law. He was well acquainted, too, with most of the modern
+languages, and familiar with their most recent literature. Nor
+was it at all extraordinary to hear the great <span class="pagenum">Pg. 235</span>mechanician and
+engineer detailing and expounding, for hours together, the
+metaphysical theories of the German logicians, or criticising
+the measures or the matter of the German poetry.</p>
+
+<p>His astonishing memory was aided, no doubt, in a great measure,
+by a still higher and rarer faculty&mdash;by his power of digesting
+and arranging in its proper place all the information he
+received, and of casting aside and rejecting, as it were
+instinctively, whatever was worthless or immaterial. Every
+conception that was suggested to his mind seemed instantly to
+take its place among its other rich furniture, and to be
+condensed into the smallest and most convenient form. He never
+appeared, therefore, to be at all encumbered or perplexed with
+the <i>verbiage</i> of the dull books he perused, or the idle talk to
+which he listened; but to have at once extracted, by a kind of
+intellectual alchemy, all that was worthy of attention, and to
+have reduced it, for his own use, to its true value and to its
+simplest form. And thus it often happened that a great deal more
+was learned from his brief and vigorous account of the theories
+and arguments of tedious writers, than an ordinary student could
+ever have derived from the most painful study of the originals,
+and that errors and absurdities became manifest from the mere
+clearness and plainness of his statement of them, which might
+have deluded and perplexed most of his hearers without that
+invaluable assistance.</p>
+
+<p>It is needless to say, that, with those vast resources, his
+conversation was at all times rich and instructive in no
+ordinary degree; but it was, if possible, still more pleasing
+than wise, and had all the charms of familiarity, with all the
+substantial treasures of knowledge. No man could be more social
+in his spirit, less assuming or fastidious in his manners, or
+more kind and indulgent toward all who approached him. He rather
+liked to talk, at least in his latter years, but though he took
+a considerable share of the conversation, he rarely suggested
+the topics on which it was to turn, but readily and quietly took
+up whatever was presented by those around him, and astonished
+the idle and barren propounders of an ordinary theme, by the
+treasures which he drew from the mine they had inconsciously
+opened. He generally seemed, indeed, to have no choice or
+predilection for one subject of discourse rather than another;
+but allowed his mind, like a great cyclop&aelig;dia, to be <span class="pagenum">Pg. 236</span>opened at
+any letter his associates might choose to turn up, and only
+endeavour to select, from his inexhaustible stores, what might
+be best adapted to the taste of his present hearers. As to their
+capacity he gave himself no trouble; and, indeed, such was his
+singular talent for making all things plain, clear, and
+intelligible, that scarcely any one could be aware of such a
+deficiency in his presence. His talk, too, though overflowing
+with information, had no resemblance to lecturing or solemn
+discoursing, but, on the contrary, was full of colloquial spirit
+and pleasantry. He had a certain quiet and grave humour, which
+ran through most of his conversation, and a vein of temperate
+jocularity, which gave infinite zest and effect to the condensed
+and inexhaustible information which formed its main staple and
+characteristic. There was a little air of affected testiness,
+and a tone of pretended rebuke and contradiction, with which he
+used to address his younger friends, that was always felt by
+them as an endearing mark of his kindness and familiarity, and
+prized accordingly, far beyond all the solemn compliments that
+ever proceeded from the lips of authority. His voice was deep
+and powerful, although he commonly spoke in a low and somewhat
+monotonous tone, which harmonised admirably with the weight and
+brevity of his observations, and set off to the greatest
+advantage the pleasant anecdotes, which he delivered with the
+same grave brow, and the same calm smile playing soberly on his
+lips. There was nothing of effort indeed, or impatience, any
+more than pride or levity, in his demeanour; and there was a
+finer expression of reposing strength, and mild self-possession
+in his manner, than we ever recollect to have met with in any
+other person. He had in his character the utmost abhorrence for
+all sorts of forwardness, parade and pretensions; and, indeed,
+never failed to put all such impostures out of countenance, by
+the manly plainness and honest intrepidity of his language and
+deportment.</p>
+
+<p>In his temper and dispositions he was not only kind and
+affectionate, but generous, and considerate of the feelings of
+all around him; and gave the most liberal assistance and
+encouragement to all young persons who showed any indications of
+talent, or applied to him for patronage or advice. His health,
+which was delicate from his youth upwards, seemed to become
+firmer as he advanced in <span class="pagenum">Pg. 237</span>years; and he preserved, up almost to
+the last moment of his existence, not only the full command of
+his extraordinary intellect, but all the alacrity of spirit, and
+the social gaiety, which had illumined his happiest days. His
+friends in this part of the country never saw him more full of
+intellectual vigour and colloquial animation, never more
+delightful or more instructive, than in his last visit to
+Scotland in the autumn of 1817. Indeed, it was after that time
+that he applied himself, with all the ardour of early life, to
+the invention of a machine for mechanically copying all sorts of
+sculpture and statuary; and distributed among his friends some
+of its earliest performances, as the productions of a young
+artist just entering on his eighty-third year.</p></blockquote>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<blockquote><p>All men of learning and science were his cordial friends; and
+such was the influence of his mild character and perfect
+fairness and liberality, even upon the pretenders to these
+accomplishments, that he lived to disarm even envy itself, and
+died, we verily believe, without a single enemy.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Professor Robison, the most intimate friend of his youth, records that:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>When to the superiority of knowledge in his own line, which
+every man confessed, there was joined the na&iuml;ve simplicity and
+candour of his character, it is no wonder that the attachment of
+his acquaintances was so strong. I have seen something of the
+world and I am obliged to say that I never saw such another
+instance of general and cordial attachment to a person whom all
+acknowledged to be their superior. But this superiority was
+concealed under the most amiable candour, and liberal allowance
+of merit to every man. Mr. Watt was the first to ascribe to the
+ingenuity of a friend things which were very often nothing but
+his own surmises followed out and embodied by another. I am well
+entitled to say this, and have often experienced it in my own
+case.</p>
+
+<p>This potent commander of the elements, this abridger of time and
+space, this magician, whose cloudy machinery has produced a
+change in the world, the effects of which, extraordinary as they
+<span class="pagenum">Pg. 238</span>are, are perhaps only now beginning to be felt&mdash;was not only the
+most profound man of science, the most successful combiner of
+powers, and combiner of numbers, as adapted to practical
+purposes&mdash;was not only one of the most generally well-informed,
+but one of the best and kindest of human beings. There he stood,
+surrounded by the little band of northern <i>literati</i>, men not
+less tenacious, generally speaking, of their own opinions, than
+the national regiments are supposed to be jealous of the high
+character they have won upon service. Methinks I yet see and
+hear what I shall never see or hear again. The alert, kind,
+benevolent old man had his attention alive to every one's
+question, his information at every one's command. His talents
+and fancy overflowed on every subject. One gentleman was a deep
+philologist, he talked with him on the origin of the alphabet as
+if he had been coeval with Cadmus; another, a celebrated critic,
+you would have said the old man had studied political economy
+and <i>belles lettres</i> all his life; of science it is unnecessary
+to speak, it was his own distinguished walk.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Lord Brougham says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>We have been considering this eminent person as yet only in his
+public capacity, as a benefactor of mankind by his fertile
+genius and indomitable perseverance; and the best portraiture of
+his intellectual character was to be found in the description of
+his attainments. It is, however, proper to survey him also in
+private life. He was unexceptionable in all its relations; and
+as his activity was unmeasured, and his taste anything rather
+than fastidious, he both was master of every variety of
+knowledge, and was tolerant of discussion on subjects of very
+subordinate importance compared with those on which he most
+excelled. Not only all the sciences from the mathematics and
+astronomy, down to botany, received his diligent attention, but
+he was tolerably read in the lighter kinds of literature,
+delighting in poetry and other works of fiction, full of the
+stores of ancient literature, and readily giving himself up to
+the critical disquisitions of commentators, and to discussion on
+the fancies of etymology. His manners were most attractive from
+their perfect nature and simplicity. His conversation was rich
+in the measure which such stores and such easy taste might lead
+us to expect, and it astonished all listeners with its admirable
+precision, <span class="pagenum">Pg. 239</span>with the extraordinary memory it displayed, with the
+distinctness it seemed to have, as if his mind had separate
+niches for keeping each particular, and with its complete
+rejection of all worthless and superfluous matter, as if the
+same mind had some fine machine for acting like a fan, casting
+off the chaff and the husk. But it had besides a peculiar charm
+from the pleasure he took in conveying information where he was
+peculiarly able to give it, and in joining with entire candor
+whatever discussion happened to arise. Even upon matters on
+which he was entitled to pronounce with absolute authority, he
+never laid down the law, but spoke like any other partaker of
+the conversation. I had the happiness of knowing Mr. Watt for
+many years, in the intercourse of private life; and I will take
+upon me to bear a testimony, in which all who had that
+gratification I am sure will join, that they who only knew his
+public merit, prodigious as that was, knew but half his worth.
+Those who were admitted to his society will readily allow that
+anything more pure, more candid, more simple, more scrupulously
+loving of justice, than the whole habits of his life and
+conversation proved him to be, was never known in society.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The descriptions given by Lords Brougham, Jeffrey, the genial Sir
+Walter, and others, of Watt's universality of knowledge and his charm in
+discourse recall Canterbury's exordium:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hear him but reason in divinity<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, all-admiring, with an inward wish consumed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You would desire the king were made a prelate;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">You would say&mdash;it hath been all in all his study:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">List his discourse of war, and you shall hear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A fearful battle rendered you in music.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Turn him to any cause of policy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The Gordian knot of it he will unloose<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The air, a chartered libertine, is still,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="pagenum">Pg. 240</div>
+<p>If Watt fell somewhat short of this, so no doubt did the king so greatly
+extolled, and much more so, probably, than the versatile Watt.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Black, the discoverer of latent heat, upon his death-bed, hears that
+the Watt patent has been sustained, and is for the time restored again
+to interest in life. He whispers that he "could not help rejoicing at
+anything that benefited Jamie Watt."</p>
+
+<p>The Earl of Liverpool, prime minister, stated that Watt was remarkable
+for</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>the simplicity of his character, the modesty of his nature, the
+absence of anything like presumption and ostentation, the
+unwillingness to obtrude himself, not only upon the great and
+powerful, but even on those of the scientific world to which he
+belonged. A more excellent and amiable man in all the relations
+of life I believe never existed.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>There can be no question that we have for our example, in the man Watt,
+a nature cast in the finest mold, seemingly composed of every creature's
+best. Transcendent as were his abilities as inventor and discoverer, we
+are persuaded that our readers will feel that his qualities as a man in
+all the relations of life were not less so, nor less worthy of record.
+His supreme abilities we can neither acquire nor emulate. These are
+individual and ended with him. But his virtues and charms as our
+fellow-man still shine steadily upon our paths and will shine upon those
+of our successors for ages to come, we trust not without leading us and
+them to tread some part of the way toward <span class="pagenum">Pg. 241</span>the acquisition of such
+qualities as enabled the friend of James Watt to declare his belief that
+"a more excellent and amiable man in all the relations of life never
+existed." A nobler tribute was never paid by man to man, yet was it not
+undeserved.</p>
+
+<p>So passes Jamie Watt, the man, from view&mdash;a man who attracted,
+delighted, impressed, instructed and made lifelong friends of his
+fellows, to a degree unsurpassed, perhaps unequalled.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"His life was gentle, and the elements<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">So mixed in him that Nature might stand up<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And say to all the world, 'This was a man.'"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of James Watt, by Andrew Carnegie
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: James Watt
+
+Author: Andrew Carnegie
+
+Release Date: July 26, 2008 [EBook #26131]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES WATT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by V. L. Simpson and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+    JAMES WATT
+
+    By
+    Andrew Carnegie
+
+    Author of "The Empire of Business,"
+    "Gospel of Wealth," "Triumphant Democracy,"
+    "American Four-in-Hand in Britain,"
+    "Round the World," Etc.
+
+
+    New York
+    Doubleday, Page & Company
+    1905
+
+
+    Copyright, 1905, by
+    Doubleday, Page & Company
+    Published, May, 1905
+
+
+
+    _All rights reserved, including that of
+    translation--also right of translation
+    into the Scandinavian languages._
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+When the publishers asked me to write the Life of Watt, I declined,
+stating that my thoughts were upon other matters. This settled the
+question, as I supposed, but in this I was mistaken. Why shouldn't I
+write the Life of the maker of the steam-engine, out of which I had made
+fortune? Besides, I knew little of the history of the Steam Engine and
+of Watt himself, and the surest way to obtain knowledge was to comply
+with the publisher's highly complimentary request. In short, the subject
+would not down, and finally, I was compelled to write again, telling
+them that the idea haunted me, and if they still desired me to undertake
+it, I should do so with my heart in the task.
+
+I now know about the steam-engine, and have also had revealed to me one
+of the finest characters that ever graced the earth. For all this I am
+deeply grateful to the publishers.
+
+I am indebted to friends, Messrs. Angus Sinclair and Edward R. Cooper,
+for editing my notes upon Scientific and Mechanical points.
+
+The result is this volume. If the public, in reading, have one tithe of
+the pleasure I have had in writing it, I shall be amply rewarded.
+
+    THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+  Authors Preface                                 v
+
+  CHAPTER                                      PAGE
+
+     I. Childhood and Youth                       3
+
+    II. Glasgow to London--Return to Glasgow.    23
+
+   III. Captured by Steam                        45
+
+    IV. Partnership with Roebuck                 67
+
+     V. Boulton Partnership                      87
+
+    VI. Removal to Birmingham                   121
+
+   VII. Second Patent                           157
+
+  VIII. The Record of the Steam Engine          195
+
+    IX. Watt in Old Age                         213
+
+     X. Watt, the Inventor and Discoverer       223
+
+    XI. Watt, the Man                           233
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
+
+
+James Watt, born in Greenock, January 19, 1736, had the advantage, so
+highly prized in Scotland, of being of good kith and kin. He had indeed
+come from a good nest. His great-grandfather, a stern Covenanter, was
+killed at Bridge of Dee, September 12, 1644, in one of the battles which
+Graham of Claverhouse fought against the Scotch. He was a farmer in
+Aberdeenshire, and upon his death the family was driven out of its
+homestead and forced to leave the district.
+
+Watt's grandfather, Thomas Watt, was born in 1642, and found his way to
+Crawford's Dyke, then adjoining, and now part of, Greenock, where he
+founded a school of mathematics, and taught this branch, and also that
+of navigation, to the fishermen and seamen of the locality. That he
+succeeded in this field in so little and poor a community is no small
+tribute to his powers. He was a man of decided ability and great natural
+shrewdness, and very soon began to climb, as such men do. The landlord
+of the district appointed him his Baron Bailie, an office which then had
+important judicial functions. He rose to high position in the town,
+being Bailie and Elder, and was highly respected and honored. He
+subsequently purchased a home in Greenock and settled there, becoming
+one of its first citizens. Before his death he had established a
+considerable business in odds and ends, such as repairing and
+provisioning ships; repairing instruments of navigation, compasses,
+quadrants, etc., always receiving special attention at his hands.
+
+The sturdy son of a sturdy Covenanter, he refused to take the test in
+favor of prelacy (1683), and was therefore proclaimed to be "a
+disorderly school-master officiating contrary to law." He continued to
+teach, however, and a few years later the Kirk Session of Greenock,
+notwithstanding his contumacy, found him "blameless in life and
+conversation," and appointed him an Elder, which required him to
+overlook not only religious observances, but the manners and morals of
+the people. One of the most important of these duties was to provide for
+the education of the young, in pursuance of that invaluable injunction
+of John Knox, "that no father, of what estate or condition that ever he
+may be, use his children at his own fantasie, especially in their
+youthhood, _but all must be compelled to bring up their children in
+learning and virtue_." Here we have, at its very birth, the doctrine of
+compulsory education for all the people, the secret of Scotland's
+progress. Great as was the service Knox rendered in the field
+ecclesiastical, probably what he did for the cause of public education
+excels it. The man who proclaimed that he would never rest until there
+was a public school in every parish in Scotland must stand for all time
+as one of the foremost of her benefactors; probably, in the extent and
+quality of the influence he exerted upon the national character through
+universal compulsory education, the foremost of all.
+
+The very year after Parliament passed the Act of 1696, which at last
+fulfilled Knox's aspirations, and during the Eldership of Watt's
+grandfather, Greenock made prompt provision for her parish school, in
+which we may be sure the old "teacher of mathematics" did not fail to
+take a prominent part.
+
+Thomas Watt's son, the father of the great inventor, followed in his
+father's footsteps, after his father's death, as shipwright, contractor,
+provider, etc., becoming famous for his skill in the making of the most
+delicate instruments. He built shops at the back of his house, and such
+were the demands upon him that he was able to keep a number of men,
+sometimes as many as fourteen, constantly at work. Like his father, he
+became a man of position and influence in the community, and was
+universally esteemed. Prosperity attended him until after the birth of
+his famous son. The loss of a valuable ship, succeeded by other
+misfortunes, swept away most of the considerable sum which he had made,
+and it was resolved that James would have to be taught a trade, instead
+of succeeding to the business, as had been the intention.
+
+Fortunate it was for our subject, and especially so for the world, that
+he was thus favored by falling heir to the best heritage of all, as Mr.
+Morley calls it in his address to the Midland Institute--"the necessity
+at an early age to go forth into the world and work for the means needed
+for his own support." President Garfield's verdict was to the same
+effect, "The best heritage to which a man can be born is poverty." The
+writer's knowledge of the usual effect of the heritage of milliondom
+upon the sons of millionaires leads him fully to concur with these high
+authorities, and to believe that it is neither to the rich nor to the
+noble that human society has to look for its preservation and
+improvement, but to those who, like Watt, have to labor that they may
+live, and thus make a proper return for what they receive, as working
+bees, not drones, in the social hive. Not from palace or castle, but
+from the cottage have come, or can come, the needed leaders of our race,
+under whose guidance it is to ascend.
+
+We have a fine record in the three generations of the Watts,
+great-grandfather, grandfather and father, all able and successful men,
+whose careers were marked by steady progress, growing in usefulness to
+their fellows; men of unblemished character, kind and considerate,
+winning the confidence and affection of their neighbors, and leaving
+behind them records unstained.
+
+So much for the male branch of the family tree, but this is only half.
+What of that of the grandmothers and mothers of the line--equally
+important? For what a Scotch boy born to labor is to become, and how,
+cannot be forecast until we know what his mother is, who is to him
+nurse, servant, governess, teacher and saint, all in one. We must look
+to the Watt women as carefully as to the men; and these fortunately we
+find all that can be desired. His mother was Agnes Muirhead, a
+descendant of the Muirheads of Lachop, who date away back before the
+reign of King David, 1122. Scott, in his "Minstrelsy of the Scottish
+Border," gives us the old ballad of "The Laird of Muirhead," who played
+a great part in these unsettled days.
+
+The good judgment which characterised the Watts for three generations is
+nowhere more clearly shown than in the lady James Watt's father courted
+and finally succeeded in securing for his wife. She is described as a
+gentlewoman of reserved and quiet deportment, "esteemed by her
+neighbours for graces of person as well as of mind and heart, and not
+less distinguished for her sound sense and good manners than for her
+cheerful temper and excellent housewifery." Her likeness is thus drawn,
+and all that we have read elsewhere concerning her confirms the truth of
+the portrait. Williamson says that
+
+    the lady to whom he (Thomas Watt) was early united in marriage
+    was Miss Agnes Muirhead, a gentlewoman of good understanding and
+    superior endowments, whose excellent management in household
+    affairs would seem to have contributed much to the order of her
+    establishment, as well as to the every-day happiness of a
+    cheerful home. She is described as having been a person above
+    common in many respects, of a fine womanly presence, ladylike in
+    appearance, affecting in domestic arrangements--according to our
+    traditions--what, it would seem was considered for the time,
+    rather a superior style of living. What such a style consisted
+    in, the reader shall have the means of judging for himself. One
+    of the author's informants on such points more than twenty years
+    ago, a venerable lady, then in her eighty-fifth year, was wont
+    to speak of the worthy Bailie's wife with much characteristic
+    interest and animation. As illustrative of what has just been
+    remarked of the internal economy of the family, the old lady
+    related an occasion on which she had spent an evening, when a
+    girl, at Mrs. Watt's house, and remembered expressing with much
+    _naivete_ to her mother, on returning home, her childish
+    surprise that "Mrs. Watt had _two_ candles lighted on the
+    table!" Among these and other reminiscences of her youth, one
+    venerable informant described James Watt's mother, in her
+    eloquent and expressive Doric, as, "a braw, braw, woman--none
+    now to be seen like her."
+
+There is another account from a neighbor, who also refers to Mrs. Watt
+as being somewhat of the grand lady, but always so kind, so sweet, so
+helpful to all her neighbors.
+
+The Watt family for generations steadily improved and developed. A great
+step upward was made the day Agnes Muirhead was captured. We are liable
+to forget how little of the original strain of an old family remains in
+after days. We glance over the record of the Cecils, for instance, to
+find that the present Marquis has less than one four-thousandth part of
+the Cecil blood; a dozen marriages have each reduced it one-half, and
+the recent restoration of the family to its pristine greatness in the
+person of the late Prime Minister, and in his son, the brilliant young
+Parliamentarian, of whom great things are predicted already, is to be
+credited equally to the recent infusion into the Cecil family of the
+entirely new blood of two successive brides, daughters of commoners who
+made their own way in the world. One was the mother of the late
+statesman, the other his wife and the mother of his sons. So with the
+Watt family, of which we have records of three marriages. Our Watt,
+therefore, had but one-eighth of the original Watt strain; seven-eighths
+being that of the three ladies who married into the family. Upon the
+entrance of a gentlewoman of Agnes Muirhead's qualities hung important
+results, for she was a remarkable character with the indefinable air of
+distinction, was well educated, had a very wise head, a very kind heart
+and all the sensibility and enthusiasm of the Celt, easily touched to
+fine issues. She was a Scot of the Scots and a storehouse of border
+lore, as became a daughter of her house, Muirhead of Lachop.
+
+Here, then, we have existing in the quiet village of Greenock in 1736,
+unknown of men, all the favorable conditions, the ideal soil, from which
+might be expected to appear such "variation of species" as contained
+that rarest of elements, the divine spark we call genius. In due time
+the "variation" made its appearance, now known as Watt, the creator of
+the most potent instrument of mechanical force known to man.
+
+The fond mother having lost several of her children born previously was
+intensely solicitous in her care of James, who was so delicate that
+regular attendance at school was impossible. The greater part of his
+school years he was confined most of the time to his room. This threw
+him during most of his early years into his mother's company and tender
+care. Happy chance! What teacher, what companionship, to compare with
+that of such a mother! She taught him to read most of what he then knew,
+and, we may be sure, fed him on the poetry and romance upon which she
+herself had fed, and for which he became noted in after life. He was
+rated as a backward scholar at school, and his education was considered
+very much neglected.
+
+Let it not be thought, however, that the lad was not being educated in
+some very important departments. The young mind was absorbing, though
+its acquisitions did not count in the school records. Much is revealed
+of his musings and inward development in the account of a visit which he
+paid to his grandmother Muirhead in Glasgow, when it was thought that a
+change would benefit the delicate boy. We read with pleasant surprise
+that he had to be sent for, at the request of the family, and taken
+home. He kept the household so stirred up with his stories, recitations
+and continual ebullitions, which so fairly entranced his Grannie and
+Grandpa and the cousins, that the whole household economy was
+disordered. They lost their sleep, for "Jamie" held them spellbound
+night after night with his wonderful performances. The shy and
+contemplative youngster who had tramped among the hills, reciting the
+stirring ballads of the border, had found an admiring tho astonished
+audience at last, and had let loose upon them.
+
+To the circle at home he was naturally shy and reserved, but to his
+Grannie, Grandpa, and Cousins, free from parental restraint, he could
+freely deliver his soul. His mind was stored with the legends of his
+country, its romance and poetry, and, strong Covenanters as were the
+Watts for generations, tales of the Martyrs were not wanting. The
+heather was on fire within Jamie's breast. But where got you all that
+_perferidum Scotorum_, my wee mannie--that store of precious nutriment
+that is to become part of yourself and remain in the core of your being
+to the end, hallowing and elevating your life with ever-increasing
+power? Not at the grammar school we trow. No school but one can instil
+that, where rules the one best teacher you will ever know, genius though
+you be--the school kept at your mother's knee. Such mothers as Watt had
+are the appointed trainers of genius, and make men good and great, if
+the needed spark be there to enkindle: "Kings they make gods, and meaner
+subjects kings."
+
+We have another story of Watt's childhood that proclaims the coming man.
+Precocious children are said rarely to develop far in later years, but
+Watt was pre-eminently a precocious child, and of this several proofs
+are related. A friend looking at the child of six said to his father,
+"You ought to send your boy to a public school, and not allow him to
+trifle away his time at home." "Look how he is occupied before you
+condemn him," said the father. He was trying to solve a problem in
+geometry. His mother had taught him drawing, and with this he was
+captivated. A few toys were given him, which were constantly in use.
+Often he took them to pieces, and out of the parts sometimes constructed
+new ones, a source of great delight. In this way he employed and amused
+himself in the many long days during which he was confined to the house
+by ill health.
+
+It is at this stage the steam and kettle story takes its rise. Mrs.
+Campbell, Watt's cousin and constant companion, recounts, in her
+memoranda, written in 1798:
+
+    Sitting one evening with his aunt, Mrs. Muirhead, at the
+    tea-table, she said: "James Watt, I never saw such an idle boy;
+    take a book or employ yourself usefully; for the last hour you
+    have not spoken one word, but taken off the lid of that kettle
+    and put it on again, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon
+    over the steam, watching how it rises from the spout, and
+    catching and connecting the drops of hot water it falls into.
+    Are you not ashamed of spending your time in this way?"
+
+To what extent the precocious boy ruminated upon the phenomenon must be
+left to conjecture. Enough that the story has a solid foundation upon
+which we can build. This more than justifies us in classing it with
+"Newton and the Apple," "Bruce and the Spider," "Tell and the Apple,"
+"Galvani and the Frog," "Volta and the Damp Cloth," "Washington and His
+Little Hatchet," a string of gems, amongst the most precious of our
+legendary possessions. Let no rude iconoclast attempt to undermine one
+of them. Even if they never occurred, it matters little. They should
+have occurred, for they are too good to lose. We could part with many of
+the actual characters of the flesh in history without much loss; banish
+the imaginary host of the spirit and we were poor indeed. So with these
+inspiring legends; let us accept them and add others gladly as they
+arise, inquiring not too curiously into their origin.
+
+While Watt was still in boyhood, his wise father not only taught him
+writing and arithmetic, but also provided a set of small tools for him
+in the shop among the workmen--a wise and epoch-making gift, for young
+Watt soon revealed such wonderful manual dexterity, and could do such
+astonishing things, that the verdict of one of the workmen, "Jamie has a
+fortune at his finger-ends," became a common saying among them. The most
+complicated work seemed to come naturally to him. One model after
+another was produced to the wonder and delight of his older
+fellow-workmen. Jamie was the pride of the shop, and no doubt of his
+fond father, who saw with pardonable pride that his promising son
+inherited his own traits, and gave bright promise of excelling as a
+skilled handicraftsman.
+
+The mechanical dexterity of the Watts, grandfather, father and son, is
+not to be belittled, for most of the mechanical inventions have come
+from those who have been cunning of hand and have worked as manual
+laborers, generally in charge of the machinery or devices which they
+have improved. When new processes have been invented, these also have
+usually suggested themselves to the able workmen as they experienced the
+crudeness of existing methods. Indeed, few important inventions have
+come from those who have not been thus employed. It is with inventors as
+with poets; few have been born to the purple or with silver spoons in
+their mouths, and we shall plainly see later on that had it not been for
+Watt's inherited and acquired manual dexterity, it is probable that the
+steam engine could never have been perfected, so often did failure of
+experiments arise solely because it was in that day impossible to find
+men capable of executing the plans of the inventor. His problem was to
+teach them by example how to obtain the exact work required when the
+tools of precision of our day were unknown and the men themselves were
+only workmen of the crudest kind. Many of the most delicate parts, even
+of working engines, passed through Watt's own hands, and for most of his
+experimental devices he had himself to make the models. Never was there
+an inventor who had such reason to thank fortune that in his youth he
+had learned to work with his hands. It proved literally true, as his
+fellow-workmen in the shop predicted, that "Jamie's fortune was at his
+finger-ends."
+
+As before stated, he proved a backward scholar for a time, at the
+grammar school. No one seems to have divined the latent powers
+smoldering within. Latin and Greek classics moved him not, for his mind
+was stored with more entrancing classics learned at his mother's knee:
+his heroes were of nobler mould than the Greek demigods, and the story
+of his own romantic land more fruitful than that of any other of the
+past. Busy working man has not time to draw his inspiration from more
+than one national literature. Nor has any man yet drawn fully from any
+but that of his native tongue. We can no more draw our mental sustenance
+from two languages than we can think in two. Man can have but one deep
+source from whence come healing waters, as he can have but one mother
+tongue. So it was with Watt. He had Scotland and that sufficed. When the
+boy absorbs, or rather is absorbed by, Wallace, The Bruce, and Sir John
+Grahame, is fired by the story of the Martyrs, has at heart page after
+page of the country's ballads, and also, in more recent times, is at
+home with Burns' and Scott's prose and poetry, he has little room and
+less desire, and still less need, for inferior heroes. So the dead
+languages and their semi-supernatural, quarrelsome, self-seeking heroes
+passed in review without gaining admittance to the soul of Watt. But the
+spare that fired him came at last--Mathematics. "Happy is the man who
+has found his work," says Carlyle. Watt found his when yet a boy at
+school. Thereafter never a doubt existed as to the field of his labors.
+The choice of an occupation is a serious matter with most young men.
+There was never room for any question of choice with young Watt. The
+occupation had chosen him, as is the case with genius. "Talent does what
+it can, genius what it must." When the goddess lays her hand upon a
+mortal dedicated to her shrine, concentration is the inevitable result;
+there is no room for anything which does not contribute to her service,
+or rather all things are made contributory to it, and nothing that the
+devotee sees or reads, hears or feels, but some way or other is made to
+yield sustenance for the one great, overmastering task. "The gods send
+thread for a web begun," because the web absorbs everything that comes
+within reach. So it proved with Watt.
+
+At fifteen, he had twice carefully read "The Elements of Philosophy"
+(Gravesend), and had made numerous chemical experiments, repeating them
+again and again, until satisfied of their accuracy. A small electrical
+machine was one of his productions with which he startled his
+companions. Visits to his uncle Muirhead at Glasgow were frequent, and
+here he formed acquaintance with several educated young men, who
+appreciated his abilities and kindly nature; but the visits to the same
+kind uncle "on the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond," where the
+summer months were spent, gave the youth his happiest days.
+Indefatigable in habits of observation and research, and devoted to the
+lonely hills, he extended his knowledge by long excursions, adding to
+his botanical and mineral treasures. Freely entering the cottages of the
+people, he spent hours learning their traditions, superstitions,
+ballads, and all the Celtic lore. He loved nature in her wildest moods,
+and was a true child of the mist, brimful of poetry and romance, which
+he was ever ready to shower upon his friends. An omniverous reader, in
+after life he vindicated his practice of reading every book he found,
+alleging that he had "never yet read a book or conversed with a
+companion without gaining information, instruction or amusement." Scott
+has left on record that he never had met and conversed with a man who
+could not tell him something he did not know. Watt seems to have
+resembled Sir Walter, "who spoke to every man he met as if he were a
+brother"--as indeed he was--one of the many fine traits of that noble,
+wholesome character. These two foremost Scots, each supreme in his
+sphere, seem to have had many social traits in common, and both that
+fine faculty of attracting others.
+
+The only "sport" of the youth was angling, "the most fitting practice
+for quiet men and lovers of peace," the "Brothers of the Angle,"
+according to Izaak Walton, "being mostly men of mild and gentle
+disposition." From the ruder athletic games of the school he was
+debarred, not being robust, and this was a constant source of morbid
+misery to him, entailing as it did separation from the other boys. The
+prosecution of his favorite geometry now occupied his thoughts and time,
+and astronomy also became a fascinating study. Long hours were often
+spent, lying on his back in a grove near his home, studying the stars by
+night and the clouds by day.
+
+Watt met his first irreparable loss in 1753, when his mother suddenly
+died. The relations between them had been such as are only possible
+between mother and son. Often had the mother said to her intimates that
+she had been enabled to bear the loss of her daughter only by the love
+and care of her dutiful son. Home was home no longer for Jamie, and we
+are not surprised to find him leaving it soon after she who had been to
+him the light and leading of his life had passed out of it.
+
+Watt now reached his seventeenth year. His father's affairs were greatly
+embarrassed. It was clearly seen that the two brothers, John and James,
+had to rely for their support upon their own unaided efforts. John, the
+elder, some time before this had taken to the sea and been shipwrecked,
+leaving only James at home. Of course, there was no question as to the
+career he would adopt. His fortune "lay at his fingers' ends," and
+accordingly he resolved at once to qualify himself for the trade of a
+mathematical instrument maker, the career which led him directly in the
+pathway of mathematics and mechanical science, and enabled him to
+gratify his unquenchable thirst for knowledge thereof.
+
+Naturally Glasgow was decided upon as the proper place in which to
+begin, and Watt took up his abode there with his maternal relatives, the
+Muirheads, carrying his tools with him.
+
+No mathematical instrument maker was to be found in Glasgow, but Watt
+entered the service of a kind of jack-of-all-trades, who called himself
+an "optician" and sold and mended spectacles, repaired fiddles, tuned
+spinets, made fishing-rods and tackle, etc. Watt, as a devoted brother
+of the angle, was an adept at dressing trout and salmon flies, and handy
+at so many things that he proved most useful to his employer, but there
+was nothing to be learned by the ambitious youth.
+
+His most intimate schoolfellow was Andrew Anderson, whose elder brother,
+John Anderson, was the well-known Professor of natural philosophy, the
+first to open classes for the instruction of working-men in its
+principles. He bequeathed his property to found an institution for this
+purpose, which is now a college of the university. The Professor came to
+know young Watt through his brother, and Watt became a frequent visitor
+at his house. He was given unrestricted access to the Professor's
+valuable library, in which he spent many of his evenings.
+
+One of the chief advantages of the public school is the enduring
+friendships boys form there, first in importance through their
+beneficial influence upon character, and, second, as aids to success in
+after life. The writer has been impressed by this feature, for great is
+the number of instances he has known where the prized working-boy or man
+in position has been able, as additional force was required, to say the
+needed word of recommendation, which gave a start or a lift upward to a
+dearly-cherished schoolfellow. It seems a grave mistake for parents not
+to educate their sons in the region of home, or in later years in
+colleges and universities of their own land, so that early friendships
+may not be broken, but grow closer with the years. Watt at all events
+was fortunate in this respect. His schoolmate, Andrew Anderson, brought
+into his life the noted Professor, with all his knowledge, kindness and
+influence, and opened to him the kind of library he most needed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+GLASGOW TO LONDON--RETURN TO GLASGOW
+
+
+Through Professor Muirhead, a kinsman of Watt's mother, he was
+introduced to many others of the faculty of the university, and, as
+usual, attracted their attention, especially that of Dr. Dick, Professor
+of natural philosophy, who strongly advised him to proceed to London,
+where he could receive better instruction than it was possible to obtain
+in Scotland at that time. The kind Professor, diviner of latent genius,
+went so far as to give him a personal introduction, which proved
+efficient. How true it is that the worthy, aspiring youth rarely goes
+unrecognised or unaided. Men with kind hearts, wise heads, and influence
+strong to aid, stand ready at every turn to take modest merit by the
+hand and give it the only aid needed, opportunity to speak, through
+results, for itself. So London was determined upon. Fortunately, a
+distant relative of the Watt family, a sea-captain, was about to set
+forth upon that then long and toilsome journey. They started from
+Glasgow June 7, 1755, on horseback, the journey taking twelve days.
+
+The writer's parents often referred to the fact that when the leading
+linen manufacturer of Dunfermline was about to take the journey to
+London--the only man in the town then who ever did--special prayers were
+always said in church for his safety.
+
+The member of Parliament in Watt's day from the extreme north of
+Scotland would have consumed nearly twice twelve days to reach
+Westminster. To-day if the capital of the English-speaking race were in
+America, which Lord Roseberry says he is willing it should be, if
+thereby the union of our English-speaking race were secured, the members
+of the Great Council from Britain could reach Washington in seven days,
+the members from British Columbia and California, upon the Pacific, in
+five days, both land and sea routes soon to be much quickened.
+
+Those sanguine prophets who predict the reunion of our race on both
+sides of the Atlantic can at least aver that in view of the union of
+Scotland and England, the element of time required to traverse distances
+to and from the capital is no obstacle, since the most distant points of
+the new empire, Britain in the east and British Columbia and California
+in the west, would be reached in less than one-third the time required
+to travel from the north of Scotland to London at the time of the union.
+Besides, the telegraph to-day binds the parts together, keeping all
+citizens informed, and stirring their hearts simultaneously thousands of
+miles apart--Glasgow to London, 1755, twelve days; 1905, eight hours.
+Thus under the genius Steam, tamed and harnessed by Watt, the world
+shrinks into a neighborhood, giving some countenance to the dreamers who
+may perchance be proclaiming a coming reality. We may continue,
+therefore, to indulge the hope of the coming "parliament of man, the
+federation of the world," or even the older and wider prophecy of Burns,
+that, "It's coming yet for a' that, when man to man the world o'er,
+shall brithers be for a' that."
+
+There comes to mind that jewel we owe to Plato, which surely ranks as
+one of the most precious of all our treasures: "We should lure ourselves
+as with enchantments, for the hope is great and the reward is noble." So
+with this enchanting dream, better than most realities, even if it be
+all a dream. Let the dreamers therefore dream on. The world, minus
+enchanting dreams, would be commonplace indeed, and let us remember this
+dream is only dreamable because Watt's steam engine is a reality.
+
+After his twelve days on horseback, Watt arrived in London, a stranger
+in a strange land, unknowing and unknown. But the fates had been kind
+for, burdened with neither wealth nor rank, this poor would-be skilled
+mechanic was to have a fair chance by beginning at the bottom among his
+fellows, the sternest yet finest of all schools to call forth and
+strengthen inherent qualities, and impel a poor young man to put forth
+his utmost effort when launched upon the sea of life, where he must
+either sink or swim, no bladders being in reserve for him.
+
+Our young hero rose to the occasion and soon proved that, Caesar-like, he
+could "stem the waves with heart of controversy." Thus the rude school
+of experience calls forth and strengthens the latent qualities of youth,
+implants others, and forms the indomitable man, fit to endure and
+overcome. Here, for the first time, alone in swarming London, not one
+relative, not one friend, not even an acquaintance, except the kind
+sea-captain, challenged by the cold world around to do or die, fate
+called to Watt as it calls to every man who has his own way to make:
+
+    "This is Collingtogle ford,
+    And thou must keep thee with thy sword."
+
+When the revelation first rushes upon a youth, hitherto directed by his
+parents, that, boy no more, he must act for himself, presto! change! he
+is a man, he has at last found himself. The supreme test, which proves
+the man, can come in all its winnowing force only to those born to earn
+their own support by training themselves to be able to render to society
+services which command return. This training compels the development of
+powers which otherwise would probably lie dormant. Scotch boy as Watt
+was to the core, with the lowland broad, soft accent, and ignorant of
+foreign literature, it is very certain that he then found support in
+the lessons instilled at his mother's knee. He had been fed on Wallace
+and Bruce, and when things looked darkest, even in very early years, his
+national hero, Wallace, came to mind, and his struggles against fearful
+odds, not for selfish ends, but for his country's independence. Did
+Wallace give up the fight, or ever think of giving up? Never! It was
+death or victory. Bruce and the spider! Did Bruce falter? Never! Neither
+would he. "Scots wa hae," "Let us do or die," implanted before his
+teens, has pulled many a Scottish boy through the crises of life when
+all was dark, as it will pull others yet to come. Altho Burns and Scott
+had yet to appear, to crystallise Scotland's characteristics and plant
+the talismanic words into the hearts of young Scots, Watt had a copious
+supply of the national sentiment, to give him the "stout heart for the
+stye brae," when manhood arrived. His mother had planted deep in him,
+and nurtured, precious seed from her Celtic garden, which was sure to
+grow and bear good fruit.
+
+We are often met with the question, "What is the best possible safeguard
+for a young man, who goes forth from a pure home, to meet the
+temptations that beset his path?" Various answers are given, but,
+speaking that as a Scot, reared as Watt was, the writer believes all the
+suggested safeguards combined scarcely weigh as much as preventives
+against disgracing himself as the thought that it would not be only
+himself he would disgrace, but that he would also bring disgrace upon
+his family, and would cause father, mother, sister and brother to hang
+their heads among their neighbors in secluded village, on far-away moor
+or in lonely glen. The Scotch have strong traces of the Chinese and
+Japanese religious devotion to "the family," and the filial instinct is
+intensely strong. The fall of one member is the disgrace of all. Even
+although Watt's mother had passed, there remained the venerated father
+in Greenock, and the letters regularly written to him, some of which
+have fortunately been preserved, abundantly prove that, tho far from
+home, yet in home and family ties and family duties the young man had
+his strong tower of defence, keeping him from "all sense of sin or
+shame." Watt never gave his father reason for one anxious thought that
+he would in any respect discredit the good name of his forbears.
+
+Many London shops were visited, but the rules of the trade, requiring
+apprentices to serve for seven years, or, being journeymen, to have
+served that time, proved an insuperable obstacle to Watt's being
+employed. His plan was to fit himself by a year's steady work for return
+to Glasgow, there to begin on his own account. He had not seven years to
+spend learning what he could learn in one. He would be his own master.
+Wise young man in this he was. There is not much outcome in the youth
+who does not already see himself captain in his dreams, and steers his
+barque accordingly, true to the course already laid down, not to be
+departed from, under any stress of weather. We see the kind of stuff
+this young Scotch lad was made of in the tenacity with which he held to
+his plan. At last some specimens of his work having seemed very
+remarkable to Mr. John Morgan, mathematical instrument maker, Finch
+Lane, Cornhill, he agreed to give the conquering young man the desired
+year's instructions for his services and a premium of twenty pounds,
+whereupon the plucky fellow who had kept to his course and made port,
+wrote to his father of his success, praising his master "as being of as
+good character, both for accuracy in his business, and good morals, as
+any of his way in London." The order in which this aspiring young man of
+the world records the virtues will not be overlooked. He then adds, "If
+it had not been for Mr. Short, I could not have got a man in London that
+would have undertaken to teach me, as I now find there are not above
+five or six who could have taught me all I wanted."
+
+Mr. Short was the gentleman to whom Professor Dick's letter of
+introduction was addressed, who, no more than the Professor himself, nor
+Mr. Morgan, could withstand the extraordinary youth, whom he could not
+refuse taking into his service--glad to get him no doubt, and delighted
+that he was privileged to instruct one so likely to redound to his
+credit in after years. Thus Watt made his start in London, the twenty
+pounds premium being duly remitted from home.
+
+Up to this time, Watt had been a charge on his father, but it was very
+small, for he lived in the most frugal style at a cost of only two
+dollars per week. In one of his letters to his father he regrets being
+unable to reduce it below that, knowing that his father's affairs were
+not prosperous. He, however, was able to obtain some remunerative work
+on his own account, which he did after his day's task was over, and soon
+made his position secure as a workman. Specialisation he met with for
+the first time, and he expresses surprise that "very few here know any
+more than how to make a rule, others a pair of dividers, and suchlike."
+Here we see that even at that early day division of labor had won its
+way in London, though yet unknown in the country. The jack-of-all-trades,
+the handyman, who can do everything, gives place to the specialist who
+confines himself to one thing in which practice makes him perfect. Watt's
+mission saved him from this, for to succeed he had to be master, not of
+one process, but of all. Hence we find him first making brass scales,
+parallel-rulers and quadrants. By the end of one month in this department
+he was able to finish a Hadley quadrant. From this he proceeded to azimuth
+compasses, brass sectors, theodolites, and other delicate instruments.
+Before his year was finished he wrote his father that he had made
+"a brass sector with a French joint, which is reckoned as nice a piece of
+framing-work as is in the trade," and expressed the hope that he would
+soon now be able to support himself and be no longer a charge upon him.
+
+It is highly probable that this first tool finished by his own hands
+brought to Watt more unalloyed pleasure than any of his greater triumphs
+of later years, just as the first week's wages of youth, money earned by
+service rendered, proclaiming coming manhood, brings with it a thrill
+and glow of proud satisfaction, compared with which all the millions of
+later years are as dross.
+
+Writers upon labor, who have never labored, generally make the profound
+mistake of considering labor as one solid mass, when the truth is that
+it contains orders and degrees as distinct as those in aristocracy. The
+workman skilled beyond his fellows, who is called upon by his
+superintendent to undertake the difficult job in emergencies, ranks
+high, and probably enjoys an honorable title, a pet name conferred by
+his shopmates. Men measure each other as correctly in the workshop as in
+the professions, and each has his deserved rank. When the right man is
+promoted, they rally round and enable him to perform wonders. Where
+favoritism or poor judgment is shown, the reverse occurs, and there is
+apathy and dissatisfaction, leading to poor results and serious trouble.
+The manual worker is as proud of his work, and rightly so, as men are in
+other vocations. His life and thought centre in the shop as those of
+members of Congress or Parliament centre in the House; and triumph for
+him in the shop, his world, means exactly the same to him, and appears
+not less important to his family and friends than what leadership is to
+the public man, or in any of the professions. He has all their pride of
+profession, and less vanity than most.
+
+How far this "pride of profession" extends is well illustrated by the
+Pittsburgh story of the street scrapers at their noon repast. MacCarthy,
+recently deceased, was the subject of eulogy, one going so far as to
+assert that he was "the best man that ever scraped a hoe on Liberty
+Street." To this, one who had aspirations "allowed Mac was a good enough
+man on plain work, but around the gas-posts he wasn't worth a cent."
+
+A public character, stopping over night with a friend in the country,
+the maid-of-all-work tells her mistress, after the guest departs, "I
+have read so much about him, never expecting to see him; little did I
+think I should have the honor of brushing his boots this morning." Happy
+girl in her work, knowing that all service is honorable. Even
+shoe-blacking, we see, has its rewards.
+
+A Highland laird and lady, visiting some of their crofters on the moors,
+are met and escorted by a delighted wife to her cot. The children and
+the husband are duly presented. At an opportune moment the proud wife
+cannot refrain from informing her visitors that "it was Donald himsel'
+the laird had to send for to thatch the pretty golf-house at the Castle.
+Donald did all that himsel'," with an admiring glance cast at the
+embarrassed great man. Donald "sent for by the laird at the Castle"
+ranks in Donald's circle and in Donald's own heart with the honor of
+being sent for by His Majesty to govern the empire in Mr. Balfour's
+circle and in Mr. Balfour's own heart. Ten to one the proud Highland
+crofter and his circle reap more genuine, unalloyed satisfaction from
+the message than the lowland statesman and his circle could reap from
+his. But it made Balfour famous, you say. So was Donald made famous, his
+circle not quite so wide as that of his colleague--that is all. Donald
+is as much "uplifted" as the Prime Minister; probably more so. Thus is
+human nature ever the same down to the roots. Many distinctions, few
+differences in life. We are all kin, members of the one family, playing
+with different toys.
+
+So deep down into the ranks of labor goes the salt of pride of
+profession, preventing rot and keeping all fresh in the main, because on
+the humblest of the workers there shines the bright ray of hope of
+recognition and advancement, progress and success. As long as this vista
+is seen stretching before all is well with labor. There will be
+friction, of course, between capital and labor, but it will be healthy
+friction, needed by, and good for, both. There is the higgling of the
+market in all business. As long as this valuable quality of honest pride
+in one's work exists, and finds deserved recognition, society has
+nothing to fear from the ranks of labor. Those who have had most
+experience with it, and know its qualities and its failings best, have
+no fear; on the contrary, they know that at heart labor is sound, and
+only needs considerate treatment. The kindly personal attention of the
+employer will be found far more appreciated than even a rise in wages.
+
+Enforced confinement and unremitting labor soon told upon Watt's
+delicate constitution, yet he persevered with the self-imposed extra
+work, which brought in a little honest money and reduced the remittances
+from home. He caught a severe cold during the winter and was afflicted
+by a racking cough and severe rheumatic pains. With his father's
+sanction, he decided to return home to recuperate, taking good care
+however, forehanded as he always proved himself, to secure some new and
+valuable tools and a stock of materials to make many others, which "he
+knew he must make himself." A few valuable books were not forgotten,
+among them Bion's work on the "Construction and Use of Mathematical
+Instruments"--nothing pertaining to his craft but he would know. King he
+would be in that, so everything was made to revolve around it. That was
+the foundation upon which he had to build.
+
+To the old home in Scotland our hero's face was now turned in the autumn
+of 1756, his twentieth year. His native air, best medicine of all for
+the invalid exile, soon restored his health, and to Glasgow he then
+went, in pursuance of his plan of life early laid down, to begin
+business on his own account. He thus became master before he was man.
+There was not in all Scotland a mathematical instrument maker, and here
+was one of the very best begging permission to establish himself in
+Glasgow. As in London so in Glasgow, however, the rules of the Guild of
+Hammermen, to which it was decided a mathematical instrument maker would
+belong, if one of such high calling made his appearance, prevented Watt
+from entrance if he had not consumed seven years in learning the trade.
+He had mastered it in one, and was ready to demonstrate his ability to
+excel by any kind of test proposed. Watt had entered in properly by the
+door of knowledge and experience of the craft, the only door through
+which entrance was possible, but he had travelled too quickly; besides
+he was "neither the son of a burgess, nor had he served an
+apprenticeship in the borough," and this was conclusive. How the world
+has travelled onward since those days! and yet our day is likely to be
+in as great contrast a hundred and fifty years hence. Protective tariffs
+between nations, and probably wars, may then seem as strangely absurd as
+the hammermen's rules. Even in 1905 we have still a far road to travel.
+
+Failing in his efforts to establish himself in business, he asked the
+guild to permit him to rent and use a small workshop to make
+experiments, but even this was refused. We are disposed to wonder at
+this, but it was in strict accordance with the spirit of the times.
+
+When the sky was darkest, the clouds broke and revealed the university
+as his guardian angel. Dr. Dick, Professor of natural philosophy,
+knowing of Watt's skill from his first start in Glasgow, had already
+employed him to repair some mathematical instruments bequeathed to the
+university by a Scotch gentleman in the West Indies, and the work had
+been well done, at a cost of five pounds--the first contract money ever
+earned by Watt in Glasgow. Good work always tells. Ability cannot be
+kept down forever; if crushed to earth, it rises again. So Watt's "good
+work" brought the Professors to his aid, several of whom he had met and
+impressed most favorably during its progress. The university charter,
+gift of the Pope in 1451, gave absolute authority within the area of its
+buildings, and the Professors resolved to give our hero shelter
+there--the best day's work they ever did. May they ever be remembered
+for this with feelings of deepest gratitude. What men these were! The
+venerable Anderson has already been spoken of; Adam Smith, who did for
+the science of economics what Watt did for steam, was one of Watt's
+dearest friends; Black, discoverer of latent heat; Robinson, Dick of
+whom we have spoken, and others. Such were the world's benefactors, who
+resolved to take Watt under their protection, and thus enabled him to do
+his appointed work. Glorious university, this of Glasgow, protector and
+nurse of Watt, probably of all its decisions this has been of the
+greatest service to man!
+
+There are universities and universities. Glasgow's peculiar claim to
+regard lies in the perfect equality of the various schools, the
+humanities not neglected, the sciences appreciated, neither accorded
+precedence. Its scientific Professor, Thompson, now Lord Kelvin, was
+recently elevated to the Lord Chancellorship, the highest honor in its
+power to bestow.
+
+Every important university develops special qualities of its own, for
+which it is noted. That of Glasgow is renowned for devotion to the
+scientific field. What a record is hers! Protector of Watt, going to
+extreme measures necessary, not alone to shelter him, but to enable him
+to labor within its walls and support himself; first university to
+establish an engineering school and professorship of engineering; first
+to establish a chemical teaching laboratory for students; first to have
+a physical laboratory for the exercise and instruction of students in
+experimental work; nursery from which came the steam engine of Watt, the
+discovery of latent heat by its Professor Black, and the successful
+operation of telegraph cables by its Professor and present Lord
+Chancellor (Lord Kelvin). May the future of Glasgow University copy
+fair her glorious past! Her "atmosphere" favors and stimulates steady,
+fruitful work. At all Scottish, as at all American universities, we may
+rejoice that there is always found a large number of the most
+distinguished students, who, figuratively speaking, cultivate knowledge
+upon a little oatmeal, earning money between terms to pay their way. It
+is highly probable that a greater proportion of these will be heard from
+in later years than of any other class.
+
+American universities have, fortunately, followed the Glasgow model, and
+are giving more attention to the hitherto much neglected needs of
+science, and the practical departments of education, making themselves
+real universities, "where any man can study everything worth studying."
+
+A room was assigned to Watt, only about twenty feet square, but it
+served him as it has done others since for great work. When the
+well-known author, Dr. Smiles, visited the room, he found in it the
+galvanic apparatus employed by Professor Thompson (Lord Kelvin) for
+perfecting his delicate invention which rendered ocean cables effective.
+
+The kind and wise Professors did not stop here. They went pretty far,
+one cannot but think, when they took the next step in Watt's behalf,
+giving him a small room, which could be made accessible to the public,
+and this he was at liberty to open as a shop for the sale of his
+instruments, for Watt had to make a living by his handiwork. Strange
+work this for a university, especially in those days; but our readers,
+we are sure, will heartily approve the last, as they have no doubt
+approved the first action of the faculty in favor of struggling genius.
+Business was not prosperous at first with Watt, his instruments proving
+slow of sale. Of quadrants he could make three per week with the help of
+a lad, at a profit of forty shillings, but as sea-going ships could not
+then reach Glasgow, few could be sold. A supply was sent to Greenock,
+then the port of Glasgow, and sold by his father. He was reduced, as the
+greatest artists have often been, to the necessity of making what are
+known as "pot-boilers." Following the example of his first master in
+Glasgow he made spectacles, fiddles, flutes, guitars, and, of course,
+flies and fishing-tackle, and, as the record tells, "many dislocated
+violins, fractured guitars, fiddles also, if intreated, did he mend with
+good approbation." Such were his "pot-boilers" that met the situation.
+
+His friend, Professor Black, who, like Professor Dick, had known of
+Watt's talent, one day asked him if he couldn't make an organ for him.
+By this time, Watt's reputation had begun to spread, and it finally
+carried him to the height of passing among his associates as "one who
+knew most things and could make anything." Watt knew nothing about
+organs, but he immediately undertook the work (1762), and the result was
+an indisputable success that led to his constructing, for a mason's
+lodge in Glasgow, a larger "finger organ," "which elicited the surprise
+and admiration of musicians." This extraordinary man improved everything
+he touched. For his second organ he devised a number of novelties, a
+sustained monochord, indicators and regulators of the blast, means for
+tuning to any system, contrivances for improving the stops, etc.
+
+Lest we are led into a sad mistake here, let us stop a moment to
+consider how Watt so easily accomplished wonders, as if by inspiration.
+In all history it may be doubted whether success can be traced more
+clearly to long and careful preparation than in Watt's case. When we
+investigate, for instance, this seeming sleight-of-hand triumph with the
+organs, we find that upon agreeing to make the first, Watt immediately
+devoted himself to a study of the laws of harmony, making science
+supplement his lack of the musical ear. As usual, the study was
+exhaustive. Of course he found and took for guide the highest authority,
+a profound, but obscure book by Professor Smith of Cambridge University,
+and, mark this, he first made a model of the forthcoming organ. It is
+safe to say that there was not then a man in Britain who knew more of
+the science of music and was more thoroughly prepared to excel in the
+art of making organs than the new organ-builder.
+
+When he attacked the problem of steam, as we shall soon see, the same
+course was followed, although it involved the mastering of three
+languages, that he should miss nothing.
+
+We note that the taking of infinite pains, this fore-arming of himself,
+this knowing of everything that was to be known, the note of thorough
+preparation in Watt's career, is ever conspicuous. The best proof that
+he was a man of true genius is that he first made himself master of all
+knowledge bearing upon his tasks.
+
+Watt could not have been more happily situated. His surroundings were
+ideal, the resources of the university were at his disposal, and, being
+conveniently situated, his workshop soon became the rendezvous of the
+faculty. He thus enjoyed the constant intimate companionship of one of
+the most distinguished bodies of educated men of science in the world.
+Glasgow was favored in her faculty those days as now. Two at least of
+Watt's closest friends, the discoverer of latent heat, and the author of
+the "Wealth of Nations," won enduring fame. Others were eminent. He did
+not fail to realise his advantages, and has left several acknowledgments
+of his debt to "those who were all much my superiors, I never having
+attended a college and being then but a mechanic." His so-called
+superiors did not quite see it in this light, as they have abundantly
+testified, but the modesty of Watt was ever conspicuous all through his
+life.
+
+Watt led a busy life, the time not spent upon the indispensable
+"pot-boilers" being fully occupied in severe studies; chemistry,
+mathematics and mechanics all received attention. What he was finally to
+become no one could so far predict, but his associates expected
+something great from one who had so deeply impressed them.
+
+Robison (afterwards Professor of natural history in Edinburgh
+University), being nearer Watt's age than the others, became his most
+intimate friend. His introduction to Watt, in 1758, has been described
+by himself. After feasting his eyes on the beautifully finished
+instruments in his shop, Robison entered into conversation with him.
+Expecting to find only a workman, he was surprised to find a
+philosopher. Says Robison:
+
+    I had the vanity to think myself a pretty good proficient in my
+    favorite study (mathematical and mechanical philosophy), and was
+    rather mortified at finding Mr. Watt so much my superior. But
+    his own high relish for those things made him pleased with the
+    chat of any person who had the same tastes with himself; or his
+    innate complaisance made him indulge my curiosity, and even
+    encourage my endeavors to form a more intimate acquaintance with
+    him. I lounged much about him, and, I doubt not, was frequently
+    teasing him. Thus our acquaintance began.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+CAPTURED BY STEAM
+
+
+The supreme hour of Watt's life was now about to strike. He had become
+deeply interested in the subject of steam, to which Professor Robison
+had called his attention, Robison being then in his twentieth year, Watt
+three years older.
+
+Robison's idea was that steam might be applied to wheel carriages. Watt
+admitted his ignorance of steam then. Nevertheless, he made a model of a
+wheel carriage with two cylinders of tin plate, but being slightly and
+inaccurately made, it failed to work satisfactorily. Nothing more was
+heard of it. Robison soon thereafter left Glasgow. The demon Steam
+continued to haunt Watt. He, who up to this time had never seen even a
+model of a steam engine, strangely discovered in his researches that the
+university actually owned a model of the latest type, the Newcomen
+engine, which had been purchased for the use of the natural philosophy
+class. One wonders how many of the universities in Britain had been so
+progressive. That of Glasgow seems to have recognised at an early day
+the importance of science, in which department she continues famous. The
+coveted and now historical model had been sent to London for repairs.
+Watt urged its prompt return and a sum of money was voted for this
+purpose. Watt was at last completely absorbed in the subject of steam.
+He read all that had been written on the subject. Most of the valuable
+matter those days was in French and Italian, of which there were no
+translations. Watt promptly began to acquire these languages, that he
+might know all that was to be known. He could not await the coming of
+the model, which did not arrive until 1763, and began his own
+experiments in 1761. How did he obtain the necessary appliances and
+apparatus, one asks. The answer is easy. He made them. Apothecaries'
+vials were his steam boilers, and hollowed-out canes his steam-pipes.
+Numerous experiments followed and much was learnt. Watt's account of
+these is appended to the article on "Steam and the Steam Engine" in the
+"Encyclopaedia Britannica," ninth edition.
+
+Detailed accounts of Watt's numerous experiments, failures,
+difficulties, disappointments, and successes, as one after the other
+obstacles were surmounted, is not within the scope of this volume, these
+being all easily accessible to the student, but the general reader may
+be interested in the most important of all the triumphs of the
+indefatigable worker--the keystone of the arch. The Newcomen model
+arrived at last and was promptly repaired, but was not successful when
+put in operation. Steam enough could not be obtained, although the
+boiler seemed of ample capacity. The fire was urged by blowing and more
+steam generated, and still it would not work; a few strokes of the
+piston and the engine stopped. Smiles says that exactly at the point
+when ordinary experimentalists would have abandoned the task, Watt
+became thoroughly aroused. "Every obstacle," says Professor Robison,
+"was to him the beginning of a new and serious study, and I knew he
+would not quit it until he had either discovered its worthlessness or
+had made something of it." The difficulty here was serious. Books were
+searched in vain. No one had touched it. A course of independent
+experiments was essential, and upon this he entered as usual, determined
+to find truth at the bottom of the well and to get there in his own way.
+Here he came upon the fact which led him to the stupendous result. That
+fact was the existence of latent heat, the original discoverer of which
+was Watt's intimate friend, Professor Black. Watt found that water
+converted into steam heated five times its own weight of water to steam
+heat. He says:
+
+    Being struck with this remarkable fact (effect of latent heat),
+    and not understanding the reason of it, I mentioned it to my
+    friend, Dr. Black, who then explained to me his doctrine of
+    latent heat, which he had taught some time before this period
+    (1764); but having myself been occupied with the pursuits of
+    business, if I had heard of it I had not attended to it, when I
+    thus stumbled upon one of the material facts by which that
+    beautiful theory is supported.
+
+Here we have an instance of two men in the same university, discovering
+latent heat, one wholly ignorant of the other's doings; fortunately, the
+later discoverer only too glad to acknowledge and applaud the original,
+and, strange to say, going to him to announce the discovery he had made.
+Watt of course had no access to the Professor's classes, and some years
+before the former stumbled upon the fact, the theory had been announced
+by Black, but had apparently attracted little attention. This episode
+reminds us of the advantages Watt had in his surroundings. He breathed
+the very "atmosphere" of scientific and mechanical investigation and
+invention, and had at hand not only the standard books, but the living
+men who could best assist him.
+
+What does latent heat mean? we hear the reader inquire. Let us try to
+explain it in simple language. Arago pronounced Black's experiment
+revealing it as one of the most remarkable in modern physics. Water
+passed as an element until Watt found it was a compound. Change its
+temperature and it exists in three different states, liquid, solid, and
+gaseous--water, ice and steam. Convert water into steam, and pass, say,
+two pounds of steam into ten pounds of water at freezing point and the
+steam would be wholly liquified, _i.e._, become water again, at 212 deg.,
+but the whole ten pounds of freezing water would also be raised to 212
+deg. in the process. That is to say two pounds of steam will convert ten
+pounds of freezing water into boiling water, so great is the latent heat
+set free in the passage of steam to lower temperatures at the moment
+when the contact of cold surfaces converts the vapor from the gaseous
+into the liquid state. This heat is so thoroughly merged in the compound
+that the most delicate thermometer cannot detect a variation. It is
+undiscoverable by our senses and yet it proves its existence beyond
+question by its work. Heat which is obtained by the combustion of coal
+or wood, lies also in water, to be drawn forth and utilised in steam. It
+is apparently a mere question of temperature. The heat lies latent and
+dead until we raise the temperature of the water to 212 deg., and it is
+turned to vapor. Then the powerful force is instantly imbued with life
+and we harness it for our purposes.
+
+The description of latent heat which gave the writer the clearest idea
+of it, and at the same time a much-needed reminder of the fact that Watt
+was the discoverer of the practically constant and unvarying amount of
+heat in steam, whatever the pressure, is the following by Mr. Lauder, a
+graduate of Glasgow University and pupil of Lord Kelvin, taken from
+"Watt's Discoveries of the Properties of Steam."
+
+    It is well to distinguish between the two things, Discovery and
+    Invention. The title of Watt the Inventor is world-wide, and is
+    so just and striking that there is none to gainsay. But it is
+    only to the few that dive deeper that Watt the Discoverer is
+    known. When his mind became directed to the possibilities of the
+    power of steam, he, following his natural bent, began to
+    investigate its properties. The mere inventor would have been
+    content with what was already known, and utilised such
+    knowledge, as Newcomen had done in his engine. Watt might have
+    invented the separate condenser and ranked as a great inventor,
+    but the spirit of enquiry was in possession of him, and he had
+    to find out all he could about the _nature_ of steam.
+
+    His first discovery was that of latent heat. When communicating
+    this to Professor Black he found that his friend had anticipated
+    him, and had been teaching it in lectures to his students for
+    some years past. His next step was the discovery of the _total_
+    heat of steam, and that this remains practically constant at all
+    pressures. Black's fame rests upon his theory of latent heat;
+    Watt's fame as the discoverer of the total heat of steam should
+    be equally great, and would be no doubt had his role of inventor
+    not overshadowed all his work.
+
+    This part of Watt's work has been so little known that it is
+    almost imperative to-day to give some idea of it to the general
+    reader. Suppose you take a flask, such as olive oil is often
+    sold in, and fill with cold water. Set it over a lighted lamp,
+    put a thermometer in the water, and the temperature will be
+    observed to rise steadily till it reaches 212 deg., where it
+    remains, the water boils, and steam is produced freely. Now draw
+    the thermometer out of the water, but leaving it still in the
+    steam. It remains steady at the same point--212 deg. Now it
+    requires quite a long time and a large amount of heat to convert
+    all the water into steam. As the steam goes off at the same
+    temperature as the water, it is evident a quantity of heat has
+    escaped in the steam, of which the thermometer gives us no
+    account. This is latent heat.
+
+    Now, if you blow the steam into cold water instead of allowing
+    it to pass into the air, you will find that it heats the water
+    six times more than what is due to its indicated temperature. To
+    fix your ideas: suppose you take 100 lbs. of water at 60 deg., and
+    blow one pound of steam into it, making 101 lbs., its
+    temperature will now be about 72 deg., a rise of 12 deg. Return to
+    your 100 lbs. of water at 60 deg. and add one pound of water at 212
+    deg. the same temperature as the steam you added, and the temperature
+    will only be raised about 2 deg. The one pound of steam heats six
+    times more than the one pound of water, both being at the same
+    temperature. This is the quantity of latent heat, which means
+    simply hidden heat, in steam.
+
+    Proceeding further with the experiment, if, instead of allowing
+    the steam to blow into the water, you confine it until it gets
+    to some pressure, then blow it into the water, it takes the same
+    weight to raise the temperature to the same degree. This means
+    that the total heat remains practically the same, no matter at
+    what pressure.
+
+    This is James Watt's discovery, and it led him to the use of
+    high-pressure steam, used expansively.
+
+Even coal may yet be superseded before it is exhausted, for as eminent
+an authority as Professor Pritchett of the Massachusetts Institute of
+Technology has said in a recent address:
+
+    Watt's invention and all it has led to is only a step on the way
+    to harnessing the forces of nature to the service of man. Do you
+    doubt that other inventions will work changes even more sweeping
+    than those which the steam engine has brought?
+
+    Consider a moment. The problem of which Watt solved a part is
+    not the problem of inventing a machine, but the problem of using
+    and storing the forces of nature which now go to waste. Now to
+    us who live on the earth there is only one source of power--the
+    sun. Darken the sun and every engine on the earth's surface
+    would soon stop, every wheel cease to turn, and all movement
+    cease. How prodigal this supply of power is we seldom stop to
+    consider. Deducting the atmospheric absorption, it is still true
+    that the sun delivers on each square yard of the earth's
+    surface, when he is shining, the equivalent of one horse-power
+    working continuously. Enough mechanical power goes to waste on
+    the college campus to warm and light and supply all the
+    manufactories, street railroads and other consumers of
+    mechanical power in the city. How to harness this power and to
+    store it--that is the problem of the inventor and the engineer
+    of the twentieth century, a problem which in good time is sure
+    to be solved.
+
+Who shall doubt, after finding this secret source of force in water,
+that some future Watt is to discover other sources of power, or
+perchance succeed in utilising the superabundant power known to exist in
+the heat of the sun, or discover the secret of the latent force employed
+by nature in animals, which converts chemical energy directly into the
+dynamic form, giving much higher efficiencies than any thermo-dynamic
+machine has to-day or probably ever can have. Little knew Shakespeare of
+man's perfect power of motion which utilises all energy! How came he
+then to exclaim "What a piece of work is man; how infinite in faculty;
+in form and _moving_ how express and admirable"? This query, and a
+thousand others, have arisen; for we forget Arnold's lines to the
+Master:
+
+    "Others abide our question. Thou art free.
+    We ask and ask--thou smilest and art still."
+
+Man's "moving" is found more "express and admirable" than that of the
+most perfect machine or adaptation of natural forces yet devised. Lord
+Kelvin says the animal motor more closely resembles an electro-magnetic
+engine than a heat engine, but very probably the chemical forces in
+animals produce the external mechanical effects through electricity and
+do not act as a thermo-dynamic engine.
+
+The wastage of heat energy under present methods is appalling. About 65
+per cent. of the heat energy of coal can be put into the steam boiler,
+and from this only 15 per cent. of mechanical power is obtained. Thus
+about nine-tenths of the original heat in coal is wasted. Proceeding
+further and putting mechanical power into electricity, only from 2 to 5
+per cent. is turned into light; or, in other words, from coal to light
+we get on an average only about one-half of 1 per cent. of the original
+energy, a wastage of ninety-nine and one-half of every hundred pounds of
+coal used. The very best possible with largest and best machinery is a
+little more than one pound from every hundred consumed.
+
+When Watt gave to the steam-engine five times its efficiency by
+utilising the latent heat, he only touched the fringe of the mysterious
+realm which envelops man.
+
+Burbank, of the spineless cactus and new fruits, who has been delving
+deep into the mysteries, tells us:
+
+    The facts of plant life demand a kinetic theory of evolution, a
+    slight change from Huxley's statement that, "Matter is a
+    magazine of force," to that of matter being force alone. The
+    time will come when the theory of "ions" will be thrown aside,
+    and no line left between force and matter.
+
+Professor Matthews, he who, with Professor Loeb at Wood's Hole, is
+imparting life to sea-urchins through electrical reactions, declares
+"that certain chemical substances coming together under certain
+conditions are bound to produce life. All life comes through the
+operation of universal laws." We are but young in all this mysterious
+business. What lies behind and probably near at hand may not merely
+revolutionise material agencies but human preconceptions as well. "There
+are more things in Heaven and Earth than are ever dreamt of in your
+Philosophy."
+
+Latent Heat was a find indeed, but there remained another discovery yet
+to make. Watt found that no less than four-fifths of all the steam used
+was lost in heating the cold cylinder, and only one-fifth performed
+service by acting on the piston. Prevent this, and the power of the
+giant is increased fourfold. Here was the prize to contend for. Win this
+and the campaign is won. First then, what caused the loss? This was soon
+determined. The cylinder was necessarily cooled at the top because it
+was open to the air, and also cooled below in condensing the charge of
+steam that had driven the piston up in order to create a vacuum, without
+which the piston would not descend from top to bottom, to begin another
+upward stroke. A jet of cold water was introduced to effect this. How to
+surmount this seemingly insuperable obstacle was the problem that kept
+Watt long in profound study.
+
+Many plans were entertained, only to be finally rejected. At last the
+flash came into that teeming brain like a stroke of lightning. Eureka!
+he had found it. Not one scintilla of doubt ever intruded thereafter.
+The solution lay right there and he would invent the needed appliances.
+His mode of procedure, when on the trail of big game, is beautifully
+illustrated here. When he found the root of the defect which rendered
+the Newcomen engine impracticable for general purposes, he promptly
+formulated the one indispensable condition which alone met the problem,
+and which the successful steam-engine must possess. He abandoned all
+else for the time as superfluous, since this was the key of the
+position. This is the law he then laid down as an axiom--which is
+repeated in his specification for his first patent in 1769: "To make a
+perfect steam engine it was necessary that the cylinder should be always
+as hot as the steam which entered it, and that the steam should be
+cooled below 100 deg. to exert its full powers."
+
+Watt describes how at last the idea of the "separate condenser," the
+complete cure, flashed suddenly upon his mind:
+
+    I had gone to take a walk on a fine Sabbath afternoon, early in
+    1765. I had entered the green by the gate at the foot of
+    Charlotte Street and had passed the old washing-house. I was
+    thinking upon the engine at the time, and had gone as far as the
+    herd's house, when the idea came into my mind that as steam was
+    an elastic body it would rush into a vacuum, and if a
+    communication were made between the cylinder and an exhausted
+    vessel it would rush into it, and might be there condensed
+    without cooling the cylinder. I then saw that I must get rid of
+    the condensed steam and injection-water if I used a jet as in
+    Newcomen's engine. Two ways of doing this occurred to me. First,
+    the water might be run off by a descending pipe, if an offlet
+    could be got at the depth of thirty-five or thirty-six feet,
+    and any air might be extracted by a small pump. The second was
+    to make the pump large enough to extract both water and air ...
+    I had not walked farther than the golf-house when the whole
+    thing was arranged in my mind.
+
+Professor Black says, "This capital improvement flashed upon his mind at
+once and filled him with rapture." We may imagine
+
+    "Then felt he like some watcher of the skies
+    When a new planet sweeps into his ken."
+
+A new world had sprung forth in Watt's brain, for nothing less has the
+steam engine given to man. One reads with a smile the dear modest man's
+deprecatory remarks about the condenser in after years, when he was
+overcome by the glowing tributes paid him upon one occasion and hailed
+as having conquered hitherto uncontrollable steam. He stammered out
+words to the effect that it came in his way and he happened to find it;
+others had missed it; that was all; somebody had to stumble upon it.
+That is all very well, and we love thee, Jamie Watt (he was always Jamie
+to his friends), for such self-abnegation, but the truth of history must
+be vindicated for all that. It proclaims, Thou art the man; go up higher
+and take your seat there among the immortals, the inventor of the
+greatest of all inventions, a great discoverer and one of the noblest of
+men!
+
+In this one change lay all the difference between the Newcomen engine,
+limited to atmospheric pressure, and the steam engine, capable of
+development into the modern engine through the increasing use of the
+tremendous force of steam under higher pressures, and improved
+conditions from time to time.
+
+Watt leads the steam out of the cylinder and condenses it in a separate
+vessel, leaving the cylinder hot. He closes the cylinder top and sends a
+circular piston (hitherto all had been square) through it, and closely
+stuffs it around to prevent escape of steam. The rapidity of the
+"strokes" gained keeps the temperature of the cylinder high; besides, he
+encases it and leaves a space between cylinder and covering filled with
+steam. Thus he fulfils his law: "The cylinder is kept as hot as the
+steam that enters." "How simple!" you exclaim. "Is that all? How
+obviously this is the way to do it!" Very true, surprised reader, but
+true, also, that no condenser and closed cylinder, no modern steam
+engine.
+
+On Monday morning following the Sabbath flash, we find Watt was up
+betimes at work upon the new idea. How many hours' sleep he had enjoyed
+is not recorded, but it may be imagined that he had several visions of
+the condenser during the night. One was to be made at once; he borrowed
+from a college friend a brass syringe, the body of which served as a
+cylinder. The first condenser vessel was an improvised syringe and a tin
+can. From such an acorn the mighty oak was to grow. The experiment was
+successful and the invention complete, but Watt saw clearly that years
+of unceasing labor might yet pass before the details could all be worked
+out and the steam engine appear ready to revolutionise the labor of the
+world. During these years, Professor Black was his chief adviser and
+encouraged him in hours of disappointment. The true and able friend not
+only did this, but furnished him with money needed to enable him to
+concentrate all his time and strength upon the task.
+
+Most opportunely, at this juncture, came Watt's marriage, to his cousin
+Miss Miller, a lady to whom he had long been deeply attached. Watt's
+friends are agreed in stating that the marriage was of vast importance,
+for he had not passed untouched through the days of toil and trial.
+Always of a meditative turn, somewhat prone to melancholy when without
+companionship, and withal a sufferer from nervous headaches, there was
+probably no gift of the gods equal to that of such a wife as he had been
+so fortunate as to secure. Gentle yet strong in her gentleness, it was
+her courage, her faith, and her smile that kept Watt steadfast. No doubt
+he, like many other men blessed with an angel in the household, could
+truly aver that his worrying cares vanished at the doorstep.
+
+Watt had at last, what he never had before, a home. More than one
+intimate friend has given expression to the doubt whether he could have
+triumphed without Mrs. Watt's bright and cheerful temperament to keep
+him from despondency during the trying years which he had now to
+encounter. Says Miss Campbell:
+
+    I have not entered into any of the interesting details my mother
+    gave me of Mr. Watt's early and constant attachment to his
+    cousin Miss Miller; but she ever considered it as having added
+    to his enjoyment of life, and as having had the most beneficial
+    influence on his character. Even his powerful mind sank
+    occasionally into misanthropic gloom, from the pressure of
+    long-continued nervous headaches, and repeated disappointments
+    in his hopes of success in life. Mrs. Watt, from her sweetness
+    of temper, and lively, cheerful disposition, had power to win
+    him from every wayward fancy; to rouse and animate him to active
+    exertion. She drew out all his gentle virtues, his native
+    benevolence and warm affections.
+
+From all that has been recorded of her, we are justified in classing
+Watt with Bassanio.
+
+        "It is very meet
+    He live an upright life,
+    For having such a blessing in his lady,
+    He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;
+    And if on earth he do not merit it,
+    In reason he should never come to heaven."
+
+Watt knew and felt this and let us hope that, as was his duty, he let
+Mrs. Watt know it, not only by act, but by frequent acknowledgment.
+
+Watt did not marry imprudently, for his instrument-making business had
+increased, as was to have been expected, for his work soon made a
+reputation as being most perfectly executed. At first he was able to
+carry out all his orders himself; now he had as many as sixteen
+workmen. He took a Mr. Craig as a partner, to obtain needed capital. His
+profits one year were $3,000. The business had been removed in 1760 to
+new quarters in the city, and Watt himself had rented a house outside
+the university grounds. Having furnished it, Watt brought his young wife
+and installed her there, July, 1764. We leave him there, happy in the
+knowledge that he is to be carefully looked after, and, last but not
+least, steadily encouraged and counselled not to give up the engine. As
+we shall presently see, such encouragement was much needed at intervals.
+
+The first step was to construct a model embodying all the inventions in
+a working form. An old cellar was rented, and there the work began. To
+prepare the plan was easy, but its execution was quite another story.
+Watt's sad experience with indifferent work had not been lost upon him,
+and he was determined that, come what may, this working model should not
+fail from imperfect construction. His own handiwork had been of the
+finest and most delicate kind, but, as he said, he had "very little
+experience of mechanics _in great_." This model was a monster in those
+days, and great was the difficulty of finding mechanics capable of
+carrying out his designs. The only available men were blacksmiths and
+tinsmiths, and these were most clumsy workmen, even in their own crafts.
+Were Watt to revisit the earth to-day, he would not easily find a more
+decided change or advance over 1764, in all that has been changed or
+improved since then, than in this very department of applied mechanics.
+To-day such a model as Watt constructed in the cellar would be simple
+work indeed. Even the gasoline or the electric motor of to-day, though
+complicated far beyond the steam model, is now produced by automatic
+machinery. Skilled workmen do not have to fashion the parts. They only
+stand looking on at machinery--itself made by automatic
+tools--performing work of unerring accuracy. Had Watt had at his call
+only a small part of the inventory resources of our day, his model steam
+engine might have been named the Minerva, for Minerva-like, it would
+have sprung forth complete, the creature of automatic machinery, the
+workmen meanwhile smilingly looking on at these slaves of the mechanic
+which had been brought forth and harnessed to do his bidding by the
+exercise of godlike reason.
+
+The model was ready after six months of unceasing labor, but
+notwithstanding the scrupulous fastidiousness displayed by Watt in the
+workmanship of all the parts, the machine, alas, "snifted at many
+openings." Little can our mechanics of to-day estimate what "perfect
+joints" meant in those days. The entire correctness of the great idea
+was, however, demonstrated by the trials made. The right principle had
+been discovered; no doubt of that. Watt's decision was that "it must be
+followed to an issue." There was no peace for him otherwise. He wrote
+(April, 1765) to a friend, "My whole thoughts are bent on this machine.
+I can think of nothing else." Of course not; he was hot in the chase of
+the biggest game hunter ever had laid eyes on. He had seen it, and he
+knew he had the weapons to bring it down. A larger model, free as
+possible from defects which he felt he could avoid in the next, was
+promptly determined upon. A larger and better shop was obtained, and
+here Watt shut himself up with an assistant and erected the second
+model. Two months sufficed, instead of six required for the first. This
+one also at first trial leaked in many directions, and the condenser
+needed alterations. Nevertheless, the engine accomplished much, for it
+worked readily with ten and one-half pounds pressure per square inch, a
+decided increase over previous results. It was still the cylinder and
+its piston that gave Watt the chief trouble. No wonder the cylinder
+leaked. It had to be hammered into something like true lines, for at
+that day so backward was the art that not even the whole collective
+mechanical skill of cylinder-making could furnish a bored cylinder of
+the simplest kind. This is not to be construed as unduly hard upon
+Glasgow, for it is said that all the skill of the world could not do so
+in 1765, only one hundred and forty years ago. We travel so fast that it
+is not surprising that there are wiseacres among us quite convinced that
+we are standing still.
+
+We may be pardoned for again emphasising the fact that it is not only
+for his discoveries and inventions that Watt is to be credited, but also
+for the manual ability displayed in giving to these "airy nothings of
+the brain, a local habitation and a name," for his greatest idea might
+have remained an "airy nothing," had he not been also the mechanician
+able to produce it in the concrete. It is not, therefore, only Watt the
+inventor, Watt the discoverer, but also Watt, the manual worker, that
+stands forth. As we shall see later on, he created a new type of workmen
+capable of executing his plans, working with, and educating them often
+with his own hands. Only thus did he triumph, laboring mentally and
+physically. Watt therefore must always stand among the benefactors of
+men, in the triple capacity of discoverer, inventor, and constructor.
+
+The defects of the cylinder, though serious, were clearly mechanical.
+Their certain cure lay in devising mechanical tools and appliances and
+educating workmen to meet the new demands. An exact cylinder would leave
+no room for leakage between its smooth and true surface and the piston;
+but the solution of another difficulty was not so easily indicated. Watt
+having closed the top of the cylinder to save steam, was debarred from
+using water on the upper surface of the piston as Newcomen did, to fill
+the interstices between piston and cylinder and prevent leakage of
+steam, as his piston was round and passed through the top of the
+cylinder. The model leaked badly from this cause, and while engaged
+trying numerous expedients to meet this, and many different things for
+stuffing, he wrote to a friend, "My old White Iron man is dead." This
+being the one he had trained to be his best mechanic, was a grievous
+loss in those days. Misfortunes never come singly; he had just started
+the engine after overhauling it, when the beam broke. Discouraged, but
+not defeated, he battled on, steadily gaining ground, meeting and
+solving one difficulty after another, certain that he had discovered how
+to utilise steam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+PARTNERSHIP WITH ROEBUCK
+
+
+Capital was essential to perfect and place the engine upon the market;
+it would require several thousand pounds. Had Watt been a rich man, the
+path would have been clear and easy, but he was poor, having no means
+but those derived from his instrument-making business, which for some
+time had necessarily been neglected. Where was the daring optimist who
+could be induced to risk so much in an enterprise of this character,
+where result was problematical. Here, Watt's best friend, Professor
+Black, who had himself from his own resources from time to time relieved
+Watt's pressing necessities, proved once more the friend in time of
+need. Black thought of Dr. Roebuck, founder of the celebrated Carron
+Iron Works near by, which Burns apostrophised in these lines, when
+denied admittance:
+
+    "We cam na here to view your works
+    In hopes to be mair wise,
+    But only lest we gang to hell
+    It may be nae surprise."
+
+He was approached upon the subject by Dr. Black, and finally, in
+September, 1765, he invited Watt to visit him with the Professor at his
+country home, and urged him to press forward his invention "whether he
+pursued it as a philosopher or as a man of business." In the month of
+November Watt sent Roebuck drawings of a covered cylinder and piston to
+be cast at his works, but it was so poorly done as to be useless. "My
+principal difficulty in making engines," he wrote Roebuck, "is always
+the smith-work."
+
+By this time, Watt was seriously embarrassed for money. Experiments cost
+much and brought in nothing. His duty to his family required that he
+should abandon these for a time and labor for means to support it. He
+determined to begin as a surveyor, as he had mastered the art when
+making surveying instruments, as was his custom to study and master
+wherever he touched. He could never rest until he knew all there was to
+know about anything. Of course he succeeded. Everybody knew he would,
+and therefore business came to him. Even a public body, the magistrates
+of Glasgow, had not the slightest hesitation in obtaining his services
+to survey a canal which was to open a new coal field. He was also
+commissioned to survey the proposed Forth and Clyde canal. Had he been
+content to earn money and become leading surveyor or engineer of
+Britain, the world might have waited long for the forthcoming giant
+destined to do the world's work; but there was little danger of this.
+The world had not a temptation that could draw Watt from his appointed
+work. His thoughts were ever with his engine, every spare moment being
+devoted to it. Roebuck's speculative and enterprising nature led him
+also into the entrancing field of steam. It haunted him until finally,
+in 1767, he decided to pay off Watt's debts to the amount of a thousand
+pounds, provide means for further experiments, and secure a patent for
+the engine. In return, he became owner of two thirds of the invention.
+
+Next year Watt made trial of a new and larger model, with unsatisfactory
+results upon the first trial. He wrote Roebuck that "by an unforeseen
+misfortune, the mercury found its way into the cylinder and played the
+devil with the solder." Only after a month's hard labor was the second
+trial made, with very different and indeed astonishing results--"success
+to my heart's content," exclaimed Watt. Now he would pay his
+long-promised debt to his partner Roebuck, to whom he wrote, "I
+sincerely wish you joy of this successful result, and hope it will make
+some return for the obligations I owe you." The visit of congratulation
+paid to his partner Roebuck, was delightful. Now were all their griefs
+"in the deep bosom of the ocean buried" by this recent success. Already
+they saw fortunes in their hands, so brightly shone the sun these few
+but happy days. But the old song has its lesson:
+
+    "I've seen the morning the gay hills adorning,
+    I've seen it storming before the close of day."
+
+Instead of instant success, trying days and years were still before
+them. A patent was decided upon, a matter of course and almost of
+formality in our day, but far from this at that time, when it was
+considered monopolistic and was highly unpopular on that account. Watt
+went to Berwick-on-Tweed to make the required declaration before a
+Master in Chancery. In August, 1768, we find him in London about the
+patent, where he became so utterly wearied with the delays, and so
+provoked with the enormous fees required to protect the invention, that
+he wrote his wife in a most despairing mood. She administered the right
+medicine in reply, "I beg you will not make yourself uneasy though
+things do not succeed as you wish. If the engine will not do, something
+else will; never despair." Happy man whose wife is his best doctor. From
+the very summit of elation, to which he had been raised by the success
+of the model, Watt was suddenly cast down into the valley of despair to
+find that only half of his heavy task was done, and the hill of
+difficulty still loomed before. Reaction took place, and the fine brain,
+so long strained to utmost tension, refused at intervals to work at high
+pressure. He became subject to recurring fits of despondency,
+aggravated, if not primarily caused by anxiety for his family, who could
+not be maintained unless he engaged in work yielding prompt returns.
+
+We may here mention one of his lifelong traits, which revealed itself at
+times. Watt was no man of affairs. Business was distasteful to him. As
+he once wrote his partner, Boulton, he "would rather face a loaded
+cannon than settle a disputed account or make a bargain." Monetary
+matters were his special aversion. For any other form of annoyance,
+danger or responsibility, he had the lion heart. Pecuniary
+responsibility was his bogey of the dark closet. He writes that,
+"Solomon said that in the increase of knowledge there is increase of
+sorrow: if he had substituted _business_ for knowledge it would have
+been perfectly true."
+
+Roebuck shines out brilliantly in this emergency. He was always
+sanguine, and encouraged Watt to go forward. October, 1768, he writes:
+
+    You are now letting the most active part of your life insensibly
+    glide away. A day, a moment, ought not to be lost. And you
+    should not suffer your thoughts to be diverted by any other
+    object, or even improvement of this [model], but only the
+    speediest and most effectual manner of executing an engine of a
+    proper size, according to your present ideas.
+
+Watt wrote Dr. Small in January, 1769, "I have much contrived and little
+executed. How much would good health and spirits be worth to me!" and a
+month later, "I am still plagued with headaches and sometimes
+heartaches." Sleepless nights now came upon him. All this time, however,
+he was absorbed in his one engrossing task. Leupold's "Theatrim
+Machinarum," which fell into his hands, gave an account of the
+machinery, furnaces and methods of mine-working in the upper Hartz.
+Alas! the book was in German, and he could not understand it. He
+promptly resolved to master the language, sought out a Swiss-German dyer
+then settled in Glasgow whom he engaged to give him lessons. So German
+and the German book were both mastered. Not bad work this from one in
+the depths of despair. It has been before noted that for the same end he
+had successfully mastered French and Italian. So in sickness as in
+health his demon steam pursued him, giving him no rest.
+
+Watt had a hard piece of work in preparing his first
+patent-specification, which was all-important in those early days of
+patent "monopolies" as these were considered. Their validity often
+turned upon a word or two too much or too little. It was as dangerous to
+omit as to admit. Professionals agree in opinion that Watt here
+displayed extraordinary ability.
+
+In nothing has public opinion more completely changed than in its
+attitude toward patents. In Watt's day, the inventor who applied for a
+patent was a would-be monopolist. The courts shared the popular belief.
+Lord Brougham vehemently remonstrated against this, declaring that the
+inventor was entitled to remuneration. Every point was construed against
+the unfortunate benefactor, as if he were a public enemy attempting to
+rob his fellows. To-day the inventor is hailed as the foremost of
+benefactors.
+
+Notable indeed is it that on the very day Watt obtained his first
+patent, January 5th, 1769, Arkwright got his spinning-frame patent. Only
+the year before Hargreaves obtained his patent for the spinning-jenny.
+These are the two inventors, with Whitney, the American inventor of the
+cotton-gin, from whose brains came the development of the textile
+industry in which Britain still stands foremost. Fifty-six millions of
+spindles turn to-day in the little island--more than all the rest of the
+civilised world can boast. Much later came Stephenson with his
+locomotive. Here is a record for a quartette of manual laborers in the
+truest sense, actual wage-earners as mechanics--Watt, Stephenson,
+Arkwright, and Hargreaves! Where is that quartette to be equalled?
+
+Workingmen of our day should ponder over this, and take to heart the
+truth that manual mechanical labor is the likeliest career to develop
+mechanical inventors and lead them to such distinction as these
+benefactors of man achieved. If disposed to mourn the lack of
+opportunity, they should think of these working-men, whose advantages
+were small compared to those of our day.
+
+The greatest invention of all, the condenser, is fully covered by the
+first patent of 1769. The best engine up to this time was the Newcomen,
+exclusively used for pumping water. As we have seen, it was an
+atmospheric engine, in no sense a steam engine. Steam was only used to
+force the heavy piston upward, no other work being done by it. All the
+pumping was done on the downward stroke. The condensation of the spent
+steam below the piston created a vacuum, which only facilitated the fall
+of the piston. This caused the cylinder to be cooled between each stroke
+and led to the wastage of about four-fifths of all the steam used. It
+was to save this that the condenser was invented, in obedience to Watt's
+law, as stated in his patent, that "the cylinder should be kept always
+as hot as the steam that entered it"; but it must be kept clearly in
+mind that Watt's "modified machines," under his first patent, only used
+steam to do work upon the upward stroke, where Newcomen used it only to
+force up the piston. The double-acting engine--doing work up and
+down--came later, and was protected in the second patent of 1780.
+
+Watt knew better than any that although his model had been successful
+and was far beyond the Newcomen engine, it was obvious that it could be
+improved in many respects--not the least of his reasons for confidence
+in its final and more complete triumph.
+
+To these possible improvements, he devoted himself for years. The
+records once again remind us that it was not one invention, but many,
+that his task involved. Smiles gives the following epitome of some of
+those pressing at this stage:
+
+    Various trials of pipe-condensers, plate-condensers and
+    drum-condensers, steam-jackets to prevent waste of heat, many
+    trials of new methods to tighten the piston band, condenser
+    pumps, oil pumps, gauge pumps, exhausting cylinders,
+    loading-valves, double cylinders, beams and cranks--all these
+    contrivances and others had to be thought out and tested
+    elaborately amidst many failures and disappointments.
+
+There were many others.
+
+All unaided, this supreme toiler thus slowly and painfully evolved the
+steam engine after long years of constant labor and anxiety, bringing to
+the task a union of qualities and of powers of head and hand which no
+other man of his time--may we not venture to say of all time--was ever
+known to possess or ever exhibited.
+
+When a noble lord confessed to him admiration for his noble
+achievements, Watt replied, "The public only look at my success and not
+at the intermediate failures and uncouth constructions which have served
+me as so many steps to climb to the top of the ladder."
+
+Quite true, but also quite right. The public have no time to linger over
+a man's mistakes. What concerns is his triumphs. We "rise upon our dead
+selves (failures) to higher things," and mistakes, recognised as such
+in after days, make for victory. The man who never makes mistakes never
+makes anything. The only point the wise man guards is not to make the
+same mistake twice; the first time never counts with the successful man.
+He both forgives and forgets that. One difference between the wise man
+and the foolish one!
+
+It has been truly said that Watt seemed to have divined all the
+possibilities of steam. We have a notable instance of this in a letter
+of this period (March, 1769) to his friend, Professor Small, in which he
+anticipated Trevithick's use of high-pressure steam in the locomotive.
+Watt said:
+
+    I intend in many cases to employ the expansive force of steam to
+    press on the piston, or whatever is used instead of one, in the
+    same manner as the weight of the atmosphere is now employed in
+    common fire engines. In some cases I intend to use both the
+    condenser and this force of steam, so that the powers of these
+    engines will as much exceed those pressed only by the air, as
+    the expansive power of the steam is greater than the weight of
+    the atmosphere. In other cases, when plenty of cold water cannot
+    be had, I intend to work the engines by the force of steam only,
+    and to discharge it into the air by proper outlets after it has
+    done its office.
+
+In these days patents could be very easily blocked, as Watt experienced
+with his improved crank motion. He proceeded therefore in great secrecy
+to erect the first large engine under his patent, after he had
+successfully made a very small one for trial. An outhouse near one of
+Dr. Roebuck's pits was selected as away from prying eyes. The parts for
+the new engine were partly supplied from Watt's own works in Glasgow and
+partly from the Carron works. Here the old trouble, lack of competent
+mechanics, was again met with. On his return from necessary absences,
+the men were usually found in face of the unexpected and wondering what
+to do next. As the engine neared completion, Watt's anxiety "for his
+approaching doom," he writes, kept him from sleep, his fears being equal
+to his hopes. He was especially sensitive and discouraged by unforeseen
+expenditure, while his sanguine partner, Roebuck, on the contrary,
+continued hopeful and energetic, and often rallied his pessimistic
+partner on his propensity to look upon the dark side. He was one of
+those who adhered to the axiom, "Never bid the devil good-morning till
+you meet him." Smiles believes that it is probable that without
+Roebuck's support Watt could never have gone on, but that may well be
+doubted. His anxieties probably found a needed vent in their expression,
+and left the indomitable do-or-die spirit in all its power. Watt's
+brain, working at high pressure, needed a safety valve. Mrs. Roebuck,
+wife-like, very properly entertained the usual opinion of devoted wives,
+that her husband was really the essential man upon whom the work
+devolved, and, that without him nothing could have been accomplished.
+Smiles probably founded his remark upon her words to Robison: "Jamie
+(Watt) is a queer lad, and, without the Doctor (her husband), his
+invention would have been lost. He won't let it perish." The writer
+knows of a business organisation in which fond wives of the partners
+were all full of dear Mrs. Roebuck's opinion. At one time, according to
+them, the sole responsibility rested upon three of four of these
+marvellous husbands, and never did any of the confiding consorts ever
+have reason to feel that their friend did not share to the fullest
+extent the highly praiseworthy opinion formed of his partners by their
+loving wives. The rising smile was charitably suppressed. In extreme
+cases a suggested excursion to Europe at the company's expense, to
+relieve Chester from the cruel strain, and enable him to receive the
+benefit of a wife's care and ever needful advice, was remarkably
+effective, the wife's fears that Chester's absence would prove ruinous
+to the business being overcome at last, though with difficulty.
+
+Due allowance must be made for Mrs. Roebuck's view of the situation.
+There can be no doubt whatever, that Mr. Roebuck's influence,
+hopefulness and courage were of inestimable value at this period to the
+over-wrought and anxious inventor. Watt was not made of malleable stuff,
+and, besides, he was tied to his mission. He was bound to obey his
+genius.
+
+The monster new engine, upon which so much depended, was ready for trial
+at last in September, 1769. About six months had been spent in its
+construction. Its success was indifferent. Watt had declared it to be a
+"clumsy job." The new pipe-condenser did not work well, the cylinder was
+almost useless, having been badly cast, and the old difficulty in
+keeping the piston-packing tight remained. Many things were tried for
+packing--cork, oiled rags, old hats (felt probably), paper, horse dung,
+etc., etc. Still the steam escaped, even after a thorough overhauling.
+The second experiment also failed. So great is the gap between the small
+toy model and the practical work-performing giant, a rock upon which
+many sanguine theoretical inventors have been wrecked! Had Watt been one
+of that class, he could never have succeeded. Here we have another proof
+of the soundness of the contention that Watt, the mechanic, was almost
+as important as Watt the inventor.
+
+Watt remained as certain as ever of the soundness of his inventions.
+Nothing could shake his belief that he had discovered the true
+scientific mode of utilising steam. His failures lay in the
+impossibility of finding mechanics capable of accurate workmanship.
+There were none such at Carron, nor did he then know of any elsewhere.
+
+Watt's letter to his friend, Dr. Small, at this juncture, is
+interesting. He writes:
+
+    You cannot conceive how mortified I am with this disappointment.
+    It is a damned thing for a man to have his all hanging by a
+    single string. If I had wherewithal to pay the loss, I don't
+    think I should so much fear a failure; but I cannot bear the
+    thought of other people becoming losers by my schemes; and I
+    have the happy disposition of always painting the worst.
+
+Watt's timidity and fear of money matters generally have been already
+noted. He had the Scotch peasant's horror of debt--anything but that.
+This probably arises from the fact that the trifling sums owing by the
+poor to their poor neighbors who have kindly helped them in distress are
+actually needed by these generous friends for comfortable existence. The
+loss is serious, and this cuts deeply into grateful hearts. The
+millionaire's downfall, with large sums owing to banks, rich
+money-lenders, and wealthy manufacturers, really amounts to little. No
+one actually suffers, since imprisonment for debt no longer exists;
+hence "debt" means little to the great operator, who neither suffers
+want himself by failure nor entails it upon others.
+
+To Watt, pressing pecuniary cares were never absent, and debt added to
+these made him the most afflicted of men. Besides this, he says, he had
+been cheated and was "unlucky enough to know." Wise man! ignorance in
+such cases is indeed bliss. We should almost be content to be cheated as
+long as we do not find it out.
+
+It was at such a crisis as this that another cloud, and a dark one,
+came. The sanguine, enterprising, kindly Roebuck was in financial
+straits. His pits had been much troubled by water, which no existing
+machinery could pump out. He had hoped that the new engine would prove
+successful and sufficiently powerful in time to avert the drowning of
+the pits, but this hope had failed. His embarrassments were so pressing
+that he was unable to pay the cost of the engine patent, according to
+agreement, and Watt had to borrow the money for this from that
+never-failing friend, Professor Black. Long may his memory be gratefully
+remembered. Watt had the delightful qualities which attracted friends,
+and those of the highest and best character, but among them all, though
+more than one might have been willing, none were both able and willing
+to sustain him in days of trouble except the famous discoverer of latent
+heat. When we think of Watt, we picture him holding Black by the one
+hand and Small by the other, repeating to them
+
+    "I think myself in nothing else so happy
+    As in a soul remembering my dear friends."
+
+The patent was secured--so much to the good--but Watt had already spent
+too much time upon profitless work, at least more time than he could
+afford. His duty to provide for the frugal wants of his family became
+imperative. "I had," he said, "a wife and children, and I saw myself
+growing gray without having any settled way of providing for them." He
+turned again to surveying and prospered, for few such men as Watt were
+to be found in those days, or in any day. With a record of Watt's work
+as surveyor, engineer, councillor, etc., our readers need not be
+troubled in detail. It should, however, be recorded that the chief canal
+schemes in Scotland in this, the day of canals for internal commerce,
+preceding the day of railroads that was to come, were entrusted to Watt,
+who continued to act as engineer for the Monkland Canal. While Watt was
+acting as engineer for this (1770-72), Dr. Small wrote him that he and
+Boulton had been talking of moving canal boats by the steam engine on
+the high-pressure principle. In his reply, September 30, 1770, Watt
+asks, "Have you ever considered a spiral oar for that purpose, or are
+you for two wheels?" To make his meaning quite plain, he gives a rough
+sketch of the screw propeller, with four turns as used to-day.
+
+Thus the idea of the screw propeller to be worked by his own improved
+engine was propounded by Watt one hundred and thirty-five years ago.
+
+This is a remarkable letter, and a still more remarkable sketch, and
+adds another to the many true forecasts of future development made by
+this teeming brain.
+
+Watt also made a survey of the Clyde, and reported upon its proposed
+deepening. His suggestions remained unacted upon for several years, when
+the work was begun, and is not ended even in our day, of making a trout
+and salmon stream into one of the busiest, navigable highways of the
+world. This year further improvements have been decided upon, so that
+the monsters of our day, with 16,000-horse-power turbine engines, may be
+built near Glasgow. Watt also made surveys for a canal between Perth and
+Coupar Angus, for the well-known Crinan Canal and other projects in the
+Western Highlands, as also for the great Caledonian and the Forth and
+Clyde Canals.
+
+The Perth Canal was forty miles long through a rough country, and took
+forty-three days, for which Watt's fee, including expenses, was $400.
+Labor, even of the highest kind, was cheap in those times. We note his
+getting thirty-seven dollars for plans of a bridge over the Clyde. Watt
+prepared plans for docks and piers at Port Glasgow and for a new harbor
+at Ayr. His last and most important engineering work in Scotland was the
+survey of the Caledonian Canal, made in the autumn of 1773, through a
+district then without roads. "An incessant rain kept me," he writes,
+"for three days as wet as water could make me. I could scarcely preserve
+my journal book."
+
+Suffice it to note that he saved enough money to be able to write,
+"Supposing the engine to stand good for itself, I am able to pay all my
+debts and some little thing more, so that I hope in time to be on a par
+with the world."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are now to make one of the saddest announcements saving dishonor that
+it falls to man to make. Watt's wife died in childbed in his absence. He
+was called home from surveying the Caledonian Canal. Upon arrival, he
+stands paralysed for a time at the door, unable to summon strength to
+enter the ruined home. At last the door opens and closes and we close
+our eyes upon the scene--no words here that would not be an offence. The
+rest is silence.
+
+Watt tried to play the man, but he would have been less than man if the
+ruin of his home had not made him a changed man. The recovery of mental
+equipoise proved for a time quite beyond his power. He could do all that
+man could do, "who could do more is none." The light of his life had
+gone out.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+BOULTON PARTNERSHIP
+
+
+After Watt was restored to himself the first subject which we find
+attracting him was the misfortunes of Roebuck, whose affairs were now in
+the hands of his creditors. "My heart bleeds for him," says Watt, "but I
+can do nothing to help him. I have stuck by him, indeed, until I have
+hurt myself." Roebuck's affairs were far too vast to be affected by all
+that Watt had or could have borrowed. For the thousand pounds Watt had
+paid on Roebuck's account to secure the patent, he was still in debt to
+Black. This was subsequently paid, however, with interest, when Watt
+became prosperous.
+
+We now bid farewell to Roebuck with genuine regret. He had proved
+himself a fine character throughout, just the kind of partner Watt
+needed. It was a great pity that he had to relinquish his interest in
+the patent, when, as we shall see, it would soon have saved him from
+bankruptcy and secured him a handsome competence. He must ever rank as
+one of the men almost indispensable to Watt in the development of his
+engine, and a dear, true friend.
+
+The darkest hour comes before the dawn, and so it proved here. As
+Roebuck retired, there appeared a star of hope of the first magnitude,
+in no less a person than the celebrated Matthew Boulton of Birmingham,
+of whom we must say a few words by way of introduction to our readers,
+for in all the world there was not his equal as a partner for Watt, who
+was ever fortunate in his friends. Of course Watt was sure to have
+friends, for he was through and through the devoted friend himself, and
+won the hearts of those worth winning. "If you wish to make a friend, be
+one," is the sure recipe.
+
+Boulton was not only obviously the right man but he came from the right
+place, for Birmingham was the headquarters of mechanical industry. At
+this time, 1776, there was at last a good road to London. As late as
+1747 the coach was advertised to run there in two days only "if the
+roads permit."
+
+If skilled mechanics, Watt's greatest need, were to be found anywhere,
+it was here in the centre of mechanical skill, and especially was it in
+the celebrated works of Boulton, which had been bequeathed from worthy
+sire to worthy son, to be largely extended and more than ever
+preeminent.
+
+Boulton left school early to engage in his father's business. When only
+seventeen years old, he had made several improvements in the manufacture
+of buttons, watch chains, and various trinkets, and had invented the
+inlaid steel buckles, which became so fashionable. It is stated that in
+that early day it was found necessary to export them in large quantities
+to France to be returned and sold in Britain as the latest productions
+of French skill and taste. It is well to get a glimpse of human nature
+as seen here. Fashion decides for a time with supreme indifference to
+quality. It is a question of the name.
+
+At his father's death, the son inherited the business. Great credit
+belongs to him for unceasingly laboring to improve the quality of his
+products and especially to raise the artistic standard, then so low as
+to have already caused "Brummagem" to become a term of reproach. He not
+only selected the cleverest artisans, but he employed the best artists,
+Flaxman being one, to design the artistic articles produced. The natural
+result followed. Boulton's work soon gained high reputation. New and
+larger factories became necessary, and the celebrated Soho works arose
+in 1762. The spirit in which Boulton pursued business is revealed in a
+letter to his partner at Soho from London. "The prejudice that
+Birmingham hath so justly established against itself makes every fault
+conspicuous in all articles that have the least pretensions to taste."
+It may interest American readers familiar with One Dollar watches,
+rendered possible by production upon a large scale, that it was one of
+Boulton's leading ideas in that early day that articles in common use
+could be produced much better and cheaper "if manufactured by the help
+of the best machinery upon a large scale, and this could be successfully
+done in the making of clocks and timepieces." He promptly erected the
+machinery and started this new branch of business. Both King and Queen
+received him cordially and became his patrons. Soho works soon became
+famous and one of the show places of the country; princes, philosophers,
+poets, authors and merchants from foreign lands visited them and were
+hospitably received by Boulton.
+
+He was besieged with requests to take gentlemen apprentices into the
+works, hundreds of pounds sometimes being offered as premium, but he
+resolutely declined, preferring to employ boys whom he could train up as
+workmen. He replies to a gentleman applicant, "I have built and
+furnished a house for the reception of one class of apprentices--fatherless
+children, parish apprentices, and hospital boys; and gentlemen's sons
+would probably find themselves out of place in such companionship."
+
+It is not to be inferred that Boulton grew up an uncultured man because
+he left school very early. On the contrary, he steadily educated
+himself, devoting much time to study, so that with his good looks,
+handsome presence, the manners of the gentleman born, and knowledge much
+beyond the average of that class, he had little difficulty in winning
+for his wife a lady of such position in the county as led to some
+opposition on the part of members of her family to the suitor, but only
+"on account of his being in trade." There exists no survival of this
+objection in these days of American alliances with heirs of the highest
+British titles. We seem now to have as its substitute the condition that
+the father of the bride must be in trade and that heavily and to some
+purpose.
+
+Boulton, like most busy men, had time, and an open mind, for new ideas.
+None at this time interested him so deeply as that of the steam engine.
+Want of water-power proved a serious difficulty at Soho. He wrote to a
+friend, "The enormous expense of the horse-power" (it was also irregular
+and sometimes failed) "put me upon thinking of turning the mill by fire.
+I made many fruitless experiments on the subject."
+
+Boulton wrote Franklin, February 22, 1766, in London, about this, and
+sent a model he had made. Franklin replies a month later, apologising
+for the delay on account of "the hurry and anxiety I have been engaged
+in with our American affairs."[1]
+
+Tamer of lightning and tamer of steam, Franklin and Watt--one of the
+new, the other of the old branch of our English-speaking
+race--co-operating in enlarging the powers of man and pushing forward
+the chariot of progress--fit subject, this, for the sculptor and
+painter!
+
+How much further the steam engine is to be the hand-maid of electricity
+cannot be told, for it seems impossible to set limits to the future
+conquests of the latter, which is probably destined to perform miracles
+un-dreamt of to-day, perhaps coupled in some unthought-of way, with
+radium, the youngest sprite of the weird, uncanny tribe of mysterious
+agents. Uranium, the supposed basis of the latest discovery, Radium, has
+only one-millionth part of the heat of the latter. The slow-moving earth
+takes twenty-four hours to turn upon its axis. Radium covers an equal
+distance while we pronounce its name. One and one-quarter seconds, and
+twenty-five thousand miles are traversed. Puck promises to put his
+"girdle round the earth in forty minutes." Radium would pass the fairy
+girdlist in the spin round sixteen hundred times. Thus truth, as it is
+being evolved in our day, becomes stranger than the wildest imaginings
+of fiction. Our century seems on the threshold of discoveries and
+advances, not less revolutionary, perhaps more so, than those that have
+sprung from steam and electricity. "Canst thou send lightnings to say
+'Lo, here I am'?" silenced man. It was so obviously beyond his power
+until last century. Now he smiles as he reads the question. Is Tyndal's
+prophecy to be verified that "the potency of all things is yet to be
+found in matter"?
+
+We may be sure the searching, restless brains of Franklin and Watt would
+have been meditating upon strange things these days if they were now
+alive.
+
+Boulton is entitled to rank, so far as the writer knows, as the first
+man in the world worthy to wear Carlyle's now somewhat familiar title,
+"Captain of Industry" for he was in his day foremost in the industrial
+field, and before that, industrial organisations had not developed far
+enough to create or require captains, in Carlyle's sense.
+
+Roebuck, while Watt's partner, was one of Boulton's correspondents, and
+told him of Watt's progress with the model engine which proved so
+successful. Boulton was deeply interested, and expressed a desire that
+Watt should visit him at Soho. This he did, on his return from a visit
+to London concerning the patent. Boulton was not at home, but his
+intimate friend, Dr. Small, then residing at Birmingham, a scientist and
+philosopher, whom Franklin had recommended to Boulton, took Watt in
+charge. Watt was amazed at what he saw, for this was his first meeting
+with trained and skilled mechanics, the lack of whom had made his life
+miserable. The precision of both tools and workmen sank deep. Upon a
+subsequent visit, he met the captain himself, his future partner, and of
+course, as like draws to like, they drew to each other, a case of
+mutual liking at first sight. We meet one stranger, and stranger he
+remains to the end of the chapter. We meet another, and ere we part he
+is a kindred soul. Magnetic attraction is sudden. So with these two,
+who, by a kind of free-masonry, knew that each had met his affinity. The
+Watt engine was exhaustively canvassed and its inventor was delighted
+that the great, sagacious, prudent and practical manufacturer should
+predict its success as he did. Shortly after this, Professor Robison
+visited Soho, which was a magnet that attracted the scientists in those
+days. Boulton told him that he had stopped work upon his proposed
+pumping engine. "I would necessarily avail myself of what I learned from
+Mr. Watt's conversation, and this would not be right without his
+consent."
+
+It is such a delicate sense of honor as is here displayed that marks the
+man, and finally makes his influence over others commanding in business.
+It is not sharp practice and smart bargaining that tell. On the
+contrary, there is no occupation in which not only fair but liberal
+dealing brings greater reward. The best bargain is that good for both
+parties. Boulton and Watt were friends. That much was settled. They had
+business transactions later, for we find Watt sending a package
+containing "one dozen German flutes" (made of course by him in Glasgow),
+"at 5s. each, and a copper digester, _L_1:10." Boulton's people probably
+wished samples.
+
+Much correspondence followed between Dr. Small and Watt, the latter
+constantly expressing the wish that Mr. Boulton could be induced to
+become partner with himself and Roebuck in his patents. Naturally the
+sagacious manufacturer was disinclined to associate himself with Mr.
+Roebuck, then in financial straits, but the position changed when he had
+become bankrupt and affairs were in the hands of creditors. Watt
+therefore renewed the subject and agreed to go and settle in Birmingham,
+as he had been urged to do. Roebuck's pitiable condition he keenly felt,
+and had done everything possible to ameliorate.
+
+    What little I can do for him 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. I shall be content
+    to hold a very small share in the partnership, 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.
+
+Thus wrote Watt to his friend Small, August 30, 1772. Small's reply
+pointed out one difficulty which deserves notice and commendation. "It
+is impossible 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." This is an objection which to
+stock-exchange standards may seem "not well taken," and far too
+fantastical for the speculative domain, and yet it is neither
+surprising nor unusual in the realms of genuine business, in which men
+are concerned with or creating only intrinsic values.
+
+The result so ardently desired by Watt was reached in this unexpected
+fashion. It was found that in the ordinary course of business Roebuck
+owed Boulton a balance of $6,000. Boulton agreed to take the Roebuck
+interest in the Watt patent for the debt. As the creditors considered
+the patent interest worthless, they gladly accepted. As Watt said, "it
+was only paying one bad debt with another."
+
+Boulton asked Watt to act as his attorney in the matter, which he did,
+writing Boulton that "the thing is now a shadow; 'tis merely ideal, and
+will cost time and money to realise it." This as late as March 29, 1773,
+after eight years of constant experimentation, with many failures and
+disappointments, since the discovery of the separate condenser in 1765,
+which was then hailed, and rightly so, as the one thing needed. It
+remained the right and only foundation upon which to develop the steam
+engine, but many minor obstacles intervened, requiring Watt's inventive
+and mechanical genius to overcome.
+
+The transfer of Roebuck's two-third interest to Boulton afterward
+carried with it the formation of the celebrated firm of Boulton and
+Watt. The latter arranged his affairs as quickly as possible. He had
+only made $1,000 for a whole year spent in surveying, and part of that
+he gave to Roebuck in his necessity, "so that I can barely support
+myself and keep untouched the small sum I have allotted for my visit to
+you." (Watt to Small, July 25, 1773). This is pitiable indeed--Watt
+pressed for money to pay his way to Birmingham upon important business.
+
+The trial engine was shipped from Kinneil to Soho and Watt arrived in
+May, 1774, in Birmingham. Here a new life opened before him, still
+enveloped in clouds, but we may please ourselves by believing that
+through these the wearied and harassed inventor did not fail to catch
+alluring visions of the sun. Let us hope he remembered the words of the
+beautiful hymn he had no doubt often sung in his youth:
+
+    "Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take
+    The clouds ye so much dread
+    Are big with mercy, and shall break
+    With blessings on your head."
+
+Partnership requires not duplicates, but opposites--a union of different
+qualities. He who proves indispensable as a partner to one man might be
+wholly useless, or even injurious, to another. Generals Grant and
+Sherman needed very different chiefs of staff. One secret of Napoleon's
+success arose from his being free to make his own appointments, choosing
+the men who had the qualities which supplemented his and cured his own
+shortcomings, for every man has shortcomings. The universal genius who
+can manage all himself has yet to appear. Only one with the genius to
+recognise others of different genius and harness them to his own car can
+approach the "universal." It is a case of different but cooperating
+abilities, each part of the complicated machine fitting into its right
+place, and there performing its duty without jarring.
+
+Never were two men more "supplementary" to each other than Boulton and
+Watt, and hence their success. One possessed in perfection the qualities
+the other lacked. Smiles sums this up so finely that we must quote him:
+
+    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._
+
+This tells the whole story, and once again reminds us that without
+imagination and something of the romantic element, little great or
+valuable is to be done in any field. He "runs his business as if it were
+a romance," was said upon one occasion. The man who finds no element of
+romance in his occupation is to be pitied. We know how radically
+different Watt was in his nature to Boulton, whose judgment of men was
+said to be almost unerring. He recognised in Watt at their first
+interview, not only the original inventive genius, but the
+indefatigable, earnest, plodding and thorough mechanic of tenacious
+grip, and withal a fine, modest, true man, who hated bargaining and all
+business affairs, who cared nothing for wealth beyond a very modest
+provision for old age, and who was only happy if so situated that
+without anxiety for money to supply frugal wants, he could devote his
+life to the development of the steam engine. Thus auspiciously started
+the new firm.
+
+    But Boulton was more than a man of business, continues Smiles;
+    he was a man of culture, and the friend of educated 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, 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 afterward joined the Soho circle,
+    not the least distinguished of whom were Joseph Priestley and
+    James Watt.
+
+The first business in hand was the reconstruction of the engine brought
+from Kinneil, which upon trial performed much better than before, wholly
+on account of the better workmanship attainable at Soho; but there still
+recurs the unceasing complaint that runs throughout the long eight years
+of trial--lack of accurate tools and skilled workmen, the difference in
+accuracy between the blacksmith standard and that of the
+mathematical-instrument maker. Watt and Boulton alike agreed that the
+inventions were scientifically correct and needed only proper
+construction. In our day it is not easy to see the apparently
+insuperable difficulty of making anything to scale and perfectly
+accurate, but we forget what the world of Watt was and how far we have
+advanced since.
+
+Watt wrote to his father at Greenock, November, 1774: "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." This is as is usual with the Scotch
+in speech, in a low key and extremely modest, on a par with the verdict
+rendered by the Dunfermline critic who had ventured to attend "the
+playhouse" in Edinburgh to see Garrick in Hamlet--"no bad." The truth
+was that, so pronounced were the results of proper workmanship, coupled
+with some of those improvements which Watt was constantly devising, the
+engine was so satisfactory as to set both Boulton and Watt to thinking
+about the patent which protected the invention. Six of the fourteen
+years for which it was granted had already passed. Some years would
+still be needed to ensure its general use, and it was feared that before
+the patent expired little return might be received. Much interest was
+aroused by the successful trial. Enquiries began to pour in for pumping
+engines for mines. The Newcomen had proved inadequate to work the mines
+as they became deeper, and many were being abandoned in consequence. The
+necessity for a new power had set many ingenious men to work besides
+Watt, and some of these were trying to adopt Watt's principles while
+avoiding his patent. Hatley, one of Watt's workmen upon the trial engine
+at the Carron works, had stolen and sold the drawings.
+
+All this put Boulton and Watt on their guard, and the former hesitated
+to build the new works intended for the manufacture of steam engines
+upon a large scale with improved machinery. An extension of the patent
+seemed essential, and to secure this Watt proceeded to London and spent
+some time there, busy in his spare moments visiting the mathematical
+instrument shops of his youth, and attending to numerous commissions
+from Boulton. A second visit was paid to London, during which the sad
+intelligence of the death of his dear friend, Dr. Small, reached him. In
+the bitterness of his grief, Boulton writes him: "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's sympathetic reply reminds Boulton of the sentiments held by their
+departed friend--that, instead of indulging in unavailing sorrow, the
+best refuge is the more sedulous performance of duties. "Come, my dear
+sir," he writes, "and immerse yourself in this sea of business as soon
+as possible. Pay a proper respect to your friend by obeying his
+precepts. No endeavour of mine shall be wanting to make life agreeable
+to you."
+
+Beautiful partnership this, not only of business, but also entering into
+the soul close and deep, comprehending all of life and all we know of
+death.
+
+Professor Small, born 1734, was a Scot, who went to Williamsburg
+University, Virginia, as Professor of mathematics and natural
+philosophy. Thomas Jefferson was among his pupils. His health suffered,
+and he returned to the old home. Franklin introduced him to Boulton,
+writing (May 22, 1765):
+
+    I beg leave to introduce my friend Doctor Small to your
+    acquaintance, and to recommend him to your civilities. I would
+    not take this freedom if I were not sure it would be agreeable
+    to you; and that you will thank me for adding to the number of
+    those who from their knowledge of you must respect you, one who
+    is both an ingenious philosopher and a most worthy, honest man.
+    If anything new in magnetism or electricity, or any other branch
+    of natural knowledge, has occurred to your fruitful genius since
+    I last had the pleasure of seeing you, you will by communicating
+    it greatly oblige me.
+
+This man must have been one of the finest characters revealed in Watt's
+life. Altho he left little behind him to ensure permanent remembrance,
+the extraordinary tributes paid his memory by friends establish his
+right to high rank among the coterie of eminent men who surrounded Watt
+and Boulton. Boulton records that "there being nothing which I wish to
+fix in my mind so permanently as the remembrance of my dear departed
+friend, I did not delay to erect a memorial in the prettiest but most
+obscure part of my garden, from which you see the church in which he was
+interred." Dr. Darwin contributed the verses inscribed. Upon hearing of
+Small's illness Day hastened from Brussels to be present at the last
+hour.
+
+Keir writes, announcing Small's death to his brother, the Rev. Robert
+Small, in Dundee, "It is needless to say how universally he is lamented;
+for no man ever enjoyed or deserved more the esteem of mankind. We loved
+him with the tenderest affection and shall ever revere his memory."
+
+Watt's voluminous correspondence with Professor Small, previous to his
+partnership with Boulton, proves Small at that time to have been his
+intimate friend and counsellor. We scarcely know in all literature of a
+closer union between two men. Many verses of Tennyson's Memorial to
+Hallam could be appropriately applied to their friendship. Watt did not
+apparently give way to lamentations as Boulton and others did who were
+present at Small's death, probably because the receipt of Boulton's
+heart-breaking letter impressed Watt with the need of assuming the part
+of comforter to his partner, who was face to face with death, and had to
+bear the direct blow. Watt's tribute to his dear friend came later.
+
+Future operations necessarily depended upon the extension of the patent.
+Boulton, of course, could not proceed with the works. There was as yet
+no agreement between Watt and Boulton beyond joint ownership in the
+patent. At this time, Watt's most intimate friend of youthful years in
+Glasgow University, Professor Robison, was Professor of mathematics in
+the Government Naval School, Kronstadt. He secured for Watt an
+appointment at $5,000 per annum, a fortune to the poor inventor; but
+although this would have relieved him from dependence upon Boulton, and
+meant future affluence, he declined, alleging that "Boulton's favours
+were so gracefully conferred that dependence on him was not felt." He
+made Watt feel "that the obligation was entirely upon the side of the
+giver." Truly we must canonise Boulton. He was not only the first
+"Captain of Industry," but also a model for all others to follow.
+
+The bill extending the patent was introduced in Parliament February,
+1775. Opposition soon developed. The mining interest was in serious
+trouble owing to the deepening of the mines and the unbearable expense
+of pumping the water. They had looked forward to the Watt engine soon to
+be free of patent rights to relieve them. "No monopoly," was their cry,
+nor were they without strong support, for Edmund Burke pleaded the cause
+of his mining constituents near Bristol.[2]
+
+We need not follow the discussion that ensued upon the propriety of
+granting the patent extension. Suffice to say it was finally granted for
+a term of twenty-four years, and the path was clear at last. Britain was
+to have probably for the first time great works and new tools specially
+designed for a specialty to be produced upon a large scale. Boulton had
+arranged to pay Roebuck $5,000 out of the first profits from the patent
+in addition to the $6,000 of debt cancelled. He now anticipated payment
+of the thousand, at the urgent request of Roebuck's assignees, giving
+in so doing pretty good evidence of his faith in prompt returns from the
+engines, for which orders came pouring in. New mechanical facilities
+followed, as well as a supply of skilled mechanics.
+
+The celebrated Wilkinson now appears upon the scene, first builder of
+iron boats, and a leading iron-founder of his day, an original Captain
+of Industry of the embryonic type, who began working in a forge for
+three dollars a week. He cast a cylinder eighteen inches in diameter,
+and invented a boring machine which bored it accurately, thus remedying
+one of Watt's principal difficulties. This cylinder was substituted for
+the tin-lined cylinder of the triumphant Kinneil engine. Satisfactory as
+were the results of the engine before, the new cylinder improved upon
+these greatly. Thus Wilkinson was pioneer in iron ships, and also in
+ordering the first engine built at Soho--truly an enterprising man.
+Great pains were taken by Watt that this should be perfect, as so much
+depended upon a successful start. Many concerns suspended work upon
+Newcomen engines, countermanded orders, or refrained from placing them,
+awaiting anxiously the performance of this heralded wonder, the Watt
+engine. As it approached completion, Watt became impatient to test its
+powers, but the prudent, calm Boulton insisted that not one stroke be
+made until every possible hindrance to successful working had been
+removed. He adds, "then, in the name of God, fall to and do your best."
+Admirable order of battle! It was "Be sure you're right, then go ahead,"
+in the vernacular. Watt acted upon this, and when the trial came the
+engines worked "to the admiration of all." The news of this spread
+rapidly. Enquiries and orders for engines began to flow in. No wonder
+when we read that of thirty engines of former makers in one coal-mining
+district only eighteen were at work. The others had failed. Boulton
+wrote Watt to
+
+    tell Wilkinson to get a dozen cylinders cast and bored ... I
+    have fixed my mind upon making from twelve to fifteen
+    reciprocating engines and fifty rotative engines per annum. Of
+    all the toys and trinkets we manufacture at Soho, none shall
+    take the place of fire-engines in respect of my attention.
+
+The captain was on deck, evidently. Sixty-five engines per
+year--prodigious for these days--nothing like this was ever heard of
+before. Two thousand per year is the record of one firm in Philadelphia
+to-day, but let us boast not. Perhaps one hundred and twenty-nine years
+hence will have as great a contrast to show. The day of small factories,
+as of small nations, is past. Increasing magnitude, to which it is hard
+to set a limit, is the order of the day.
+
+So far all was well, the heavy clouds that had so long hovered
+menacingly over Boulton and Watt had been displaced once more by clear
+skies. But no new machinery or new manufacturing business starts
+without accidents, delays and unexpected difficulties. There was
+necessarily a long period of trial and disappointment for which the
+sanguine partners were not prepared. As before, the chief trouble lay in
+the lack of skilled workmen, for although the few original men in Soho
+were remarkably efficient, the increased demand for engines had
+compelled the employment of many new hands, and the work they could
+perform was sadly defective. Till this time, it is to be remembered
+there had been neither slide lathes, planing machines, boring tools, nor
+any of the many other devices which now ensure accuracy. All depended
+upon the mechanics' eye and hand, if mechanics they could be called.
+Most of the new hands were inexpert and much given to drink.
+Specialisation had to be resorted to--one thing for each workman, in the
+fashioning of which practice made perfect. This system was introduced
+with success, but the training of the men took time. Meanwhile work
+already turned out and that in progress was not up to standard, and this
+caused infinite trouble. One very important engine was "The Bow" for
+London, which was shipped in September. The best of the experts, Joseph
+Harrison, was sent to superintend its erection. Verbal instructions Watt
+would not depend upon; Harrison was supplied in writing with detailed
+particulars covering every possible contingency. Constant communication
+between them was kept up by letter, for the engine did not work
+satisfactorily, and finally Watt himself proceeded to London in November
+and succeeded in overcoming the defects. Harrison's anxieties disabled
+him, and Boulton wrote to Dr. Fordyce, a celebrated doctor of that day,
+telling him to take good care of Harrison, "let the expense be what it
+will." Watt writes Boulton that Harrison must not leave London, as "a
+relapse of the engine would ruin our reputation here and elsewhere." The
+Bow engine had a relapse, however, which happened in this way. Smeaton,
+then the greatest of the engineers, requested Boulton's London agent to
+take him to see the new engine. He carefully examined it, called it a
+"very pretty engine," but thought it too complicated a piece of
+machinery for practical use. There was apparently much to be said for
+this opinion, for we clearly see that Watt was far in advance of his day
+in mechanical requirements. Hence his serious difficulties in the
+construction of the complex engine, and in finding men capable of doing
+the delicately accurate work which was absolutely indispensable for
+successful working.
+
+Before leaving, Smeaton made the engineer a gift of money, which he
+spent in drink. The drunken engineman let the engine run wild, and it
+was thrown completely out of order. The valves--the part of the
+complicated machine that required the most careful treatment--were
+broken. He was dismissed, and, repairs being made, the engine worked
+satisfactorily at last. In Watt's life, we meet drunkenness often as a
+curse of the time. We have the satisfaction of knowing that our day is
+much freer from it. We have certainly advanced in the cure of this evil,
+for our working-men may now be regarded as on the whole a steady sober
+class, especially in America, where intemperance has not to be reckoned
+with.
+
+We see the difference between the reconstructed Kinneil engine where
+Boulton's "mathematical instrument maker's" standard of workmanship was
+possible "because his few trained men capable of such work were
+employed." The Kinneil engine, complicated as it was in its parts, being
+thus accurately reconstructed, did the work expected and more. The Bow
+engines and some others of the later period, constructed by ordinary
+workmen capable only of the "blacksmith's" standard of finish, proved
+sources of infinite trouble.
+
+Watt had several cases of this kind to engross his attention, all
+traceable to the one root, lack of the skilled, sober workmen, and the
+tools of precision which his complex (for his day, very complex) steam
+engine required. The truth is that Watt's engine in one sense was born
+before its time. Our class of instrument-making mechanics and several
+new tools should have preceded it; then, the science of the invention
+being sound, its construction would have been easy. The partners
+continued working in the right direction and in the right way to create
+these needful additions and were finally successful, but they found that
+success brought another source of annoyance. Escaping Scylla they struck
+Charybdis. So high did the reputation of their chief workmen rise, that
+they were early sought after and tempted to leave their positions. Even
+the two trained fitters sent to London to cure the Bow engine we have
+just spoken of were offered strong inducements to take positions in
+Russia. Watt writes Boulton, May 3, 1777, that he had just heard a great
+secret to the effect that Carless and Webb were probably going beyond
+sea, $5,000 per year having been offered for six years. They were
+promptly ordered home to Soho and warrants obtained for those who had
+attempted to induce them to abscond (strange laws these days!), "even
+though Carless be a drunken and comparatively useless fellow." Consider
+Watt's task, compelled to attempt the production of his new engines,
+complicated beyond the highest existing standard, without proper tools
+and with such workmen as Carless, whom he was glad to get and determined
+to keep, drunken and useless as he was.
+
+French agents appeared and tried to bribe some of the men to go to Paris
+and communicate Watt's plans to the contractor who had undertaken to
+pump water from the Seine for the supply of Paris. The German states
+sent emissaries for a similar purpose, and Baron Stein was specially
+ordered by his government to master the secret of the Watt engine, to
+obtain working plans, and bring away workmen capable of constructing it,
+the first step taken being to obtain access to the engine-rooms by
+bribing the workmen. All this is so positively stated by Smiles that we
+must assume that he quotes from authentic records. It is clear at all
+events that the attention of other nations was keenly drawn to the
+advent of an agency that promised to revolutionise existing conditions.
+Watt himself, at a critical part of his career (1773), as we have seen,
+had been tempted to accept an offer to enter the imperial service of
+Russia, carrying the then munificent salary of $5,000 per annum. Boulton
+wrote him: "Your going to Russia staggers me.... I wish to advise you
+for the best without regard to self, but I find I love myself so well
+that I should be very sorry to have you go, and I begin to repent
+sounding your trumpet at the Ambassador's."
+
+The imperial family of Russia were then much interested in the Soho
+works. The empress stayed for some time at Boulton's house, "and a
+charming woman she is," writes her host. Here is a glimpse of imperial
+activity and wise attention to what was going on in other lands which it
+was most desirous to transplant to their own. The emperor, and no less
+his wife, evidently kept their eyes open during their travels abroad.
+Imperial progresses we fear are seldom devoted to such practical ends,
+although the present king of Britain and his nephew the German emperor
+would not be blind to such things. It is a strange coincidence that the
+successor of this emperor, Tsar Nicholas, when grand duke, should have
+been denied admission to Soho works. Not that he was personally objected
+to, but that certain people of his suite might not be disinclined to
+take advantage of any new processes discovered. So jealously were
+improvements guarded in these days.
+
+Another source of care to the troubled Watt lay here. Naturally, only a
+few such men had been developed as could be entrusted to go to distant
+parts in charge of fellow-workmen and erect the finished engines. A
+union of many qualities was necessary here. Managers of erection had to
+be managers of men, by far the most complicated and delicate of all
+machinery, exceeding even the Watt engine in complexity. When the rare
+man was revealed, and the engine under his direction had proved itself
+the giant it was reputed, ensuring profitable return upon capital
+invested in works hitherto unproductive, as it often did, the sagacious
+owner would not readily consent to let the engineer leave. He could well
+afford to offer salary beyond the dreams of the worker, to a rider who
+knew his horse and to whom the horse took so kindly. The engineer loved
+_his_ engine, the engine which _he_ had seen grow in the shop under his
+direction and which _he_ had wholly erected.
+
+McAndrew's Song of Steam tells the story of the engineer's devotion to
+his engine, a song which only Kipling in our day could sing. The Scotch
+blood of the MacDonalds was needed for that gem; Kipling fortunately has
+it pure from his mother. McAndrew is homeward bound patting _his_ mighty
+engine as she whirls, and crooning over his tale:
+
+    That minds me of our Viscount loon--Sir Kenneth's kin--the chap
+    Wi' Russia leather tennis-shoon an' spar-decked yachtin'-cap.
+    I showed him round last week, o'er all--an' at the last says he:
+    "Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
+    Damned ijjit! I'd been doon that morn to see what ailed the throws,
+    Manholin', on my back--the cranks three inches off my nose.
+    Romance! Those first-class passengers they like it very well,
+    Printed an' bound in little books; but why don't poets tell?
+    I'm sick of all their quirks an' turns--the loves and doves they
+          dream--
+    Lord, send a man like Robbie Burns to sing the Song o' Steam!
+    To match wi' Scotia's noblest speech yon orchestra sublime,
+    Whaurto--uplifted like the Just--the tail-rods mark the time.
+    The crank-throws give the double-bass, the feed-pump sobs an' heaves,
+    An' now the main eccentrics start their quarrel on the sheaves:
+    Her time, her own appointed time, the rocking link-head bides,
+    Till--hear that note?--the rod's return whings glimmerin' through
+          the guides.
+    They're all awa'! True beat, full power, the clangin' chorus goes
+    Clear to the tunnel where they sit, my purrin' dynamos.
+    Interdependence absolute, foreseen, ordained, decreed,
+    To work, ye'll note, at any tilt an' every rate o' speed.
+    Fra' skylight lift to furnace-bars, backed, bolted, braced an' stayed,
+    An' singin' like the Mornin' Stars for joy that they are made;
+    While, out o' touch o' vanity, the sweatin' thrust-block says:
+    "Not unto us the praise, oh man, not unto us the praise!"
+    Now, a' together, hear them lift their lesson--theirs an' mine:
+    "Law, Order, Duty an' Restraint, Obedience, Discipline!"
+    Mill, forge an' try-pit taught them that when roarin' they arose,
+    An' whiles I wonder if a soul was gied them wi' the blows.
+    Oh for a man to weld it then, in one trip-hammer strain,
+    Till even first-class passengers could tell the meanin' plain!
+    But no one cares except mysel' that serve an' understand
+    My seven-thousand horse-power here. Eh, Lord!
+    They're grand--they're grand!
+    Uplift am I? When first in store the new-made beasties stood,
+    Were ye cast down that breathed the Word declarin' all things good?
+    Not so! O' that world-liftin' joy no after-fall could vex,
+    Ye've left a glimmer still to cheer the Man--the Artifex!
+    _That_ holds, in spite o' knock and scale, o' friction, waste an' slip,
+    An' by that light--now, mark my word--we'll build the Perfect Ship.
+    I'll never last to judge her lines or take her curve--not I.
+    But I ha' lived and I ha' worked. Be thanks to Thee, Most High!
+
+So the McAndrews of Watt's day were loth to part from _their_ engines,
+this feeling being in the blood of true engineers. On the other hand,
+just such men, in numbers far beyond the supply, were needed by the
+builders, who in one sense were almost if not quite as deeply concerned
+as the owners, in having proved, capable, engine managers remain in
+charge of their engines, thus enhancing their reputation. Endless
+trouble ensued from the lack of managing enginemen, a class which had
+yet to be developed, but which was sure to arise in time through the
+educative policy adopted, which was already indeed slowly producing
+fruit.
+
+Meanwhile, to meet the present situation, Watt resolved to simplify the
+engine, taking a step backward, which gives foundation for Smeaton's
+acute criticism upon its complexity. We have seen that the working of
+steam expansively was one of Watt's early inventions. Some of the new
+engines were made upon this plan, which involved the adoption of some of
+the most troublesome of the machinery. It was ultimately decided that
+to operate this was beyond the ability of the obtainable enginemen of
+the day.
+
+It must not be understood that expansion was abandoned. On the contrary,
+it was again introduced by Watt at a later stage and in better form.
+Since his time it has extended far beyond what he could have ventured
+upon under the conditions of that day. "Yet," as Kelvin says, "the
+triple and quadruple expansion engine of our day all lies in the
+principle Watt had so fully developed in his day."
+
+[1] If those in London had only listened to Franklin and taken his
+advice when he pleaded for British liberties for British subjects in
+America! It is refreshing to read in our day how completely the view
+regarding colonies has changed in Britain. These are now pronounced
+"Independent nations, free to go or stay in the empire, as they choose,"
+the very surest way to prolong the connection. This is true
+statesmanship. Being free, the chains become decorations and cease to
+chafe the wearer, unless great growth comes, when the colony must at its
+maturity perforce either merge with the motherland under one joint
+government or become a free and independent nation, giving her sons a
+country of their own for which to live, and, if necessary, to die.
+
+[2] The mention of Burke and Bristol so soon after the note of Boulton
+upon Dr. Small's passing, recalls one of Burke's many famous sentences,
+one perhaps unequalled under the circumstances. The candidate opposing
+him for Parliament died during the canvass. When Burke next addressed
+the people after the sad event, his first words were:
+
+    "What shadows we are; what shadows we pursue."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+REMOVAL TO BIRMINGHAM
+
+
+Watt's permanent settlement in Birmingham had for some time been seen to
+be inevitable, all his time being needed there. Domestic matters,
+including the care of his two children, with which he had hitherto been
+burdened, pressed hard upon him, and he had been greatly depressed by
+finding his old father quite in his dotage, although he was not more
+than seventy-five. Watt was alone and very unhappy during a visit he
+made to Greenock.
+
+Before returning to Birmingham, he married Miss MacGregor, daughter of a
+Glasgow man of affairs, who was the first in Britain to use chlorine for
+bleaching, the secret of which Berthollet, its inventor, had
+communicated to Watt.
+
+Pending the marriage, it was advisable that the partnership with Boulton
+as hitherto agreed upon should be executed. Watt writes so to Boulton,
+and the arrangement between the partners is indicated by the following
+passage of Watt's letter to him:
+
+    As you may have possibly mislaid my missive to you concerning
+    the contract, I beg just to mention what I remember of the
+    terms.
+
+    1. I to assign to you two-thirds of the property of the
+    invention.
+
+    2. You to pay all expenses of the Act or others incurred before
+    June, 1775 (the date of the Act), and also the expense of future
+    experiments, which money is to be sunk without interest by you,
+    being the consideration you pay for your share.
+
+    3. You to advance stock-in-trade bearing interest, but having no
+    claim on me for any part of that, further than my intromissions;
+    the stock itself to be your security and property.
+
+    4. I to draw one-third of the profits so soon as any arise from
+    the business, after paying the workmen's wages and goods
+    furnished, but abstract from the stock-in-trade, excepting the
+    interest thereof, which is to be deducted before a balance is
+    struck.
+
+    5. I to make drawings, give directions, and make surveys, the
+    company paying for the travelling expenses to either of us when
+    upon engine business.
+
+    6. You to keep the books and balance them once a year.
+
+    7. A book to be kept wherein to be marked such transactions as
+    are worthy of record, which, when signed by both, to have the
+    force of the contract.
+
+    8. Neither of us to alienate our share of the other, and if
+    either of us by death or otherwise shall be incapacitated from
+    acting for ourselves, the other of us to be the sole manager
+    without contradiction or interference of heirs, executors,
+    assignees or others; but the books to be subject to their
+    inspection, and the acting partner of us to be allowed a
+    reasonable commission for extra trouble.
+
+    9. The contract to continue in force for twenty-five years, from
+    the 1st of June, 1775, when the partnership commenced,
+    notwithstanding the contract being of later date.
+
+    10. Our heirs, executors and assignees bound to observance.
+
+    11. In case of demise of both parties, our heirs, etc., to
+    succeed in same manner, and if they all please, they may burn
+    the contract.
+
+    If anything be very disagreeable in these terms, you will find
+    me disposed to do everything reasonable for your satisfaction.
+
+Boulton's reply was entirely satisfactory, and upon this basis the
+arrangement was closed.
+
+Watt, with his usual want of confidence in himself in business affairs,
+was anxious that Boulton should come to him at Glasgow and arrange all
+pecuniary matters connected with the marriage. Watt had faced the
+daughter and conquered, but trembled at the thought of facing the
+father-in-law. He appeals to his partner as follows:
+
+    I am afraid that I shall otherwise make a very bad bargain in
+    money matters, which wise men like you esteem the most essential
+    part, and I myself, although I be an enamoured swain, do not
+    altogether despise. You may perhaps think it odd that in the
+    midst of my friends here I should call for your help; but the
+    fact is that from several reasons I do not choose to place that
+    confidence in any of my friends here that would be necessary in
+    such a case, and I do not know any of them that have more to say
+    with the gentleman in question than I have myself. Besides, you
+    are the only person who can give him satisfactory information
+    concerning my situation.
+
+This being impracticable, as explained by Boulton, who thoroughly
+approved of the union, the partnership and Boulton's letter were
+accepted by the judicious father-in-law as satisfactory evidence that
+his daughter's future was secure. Boulton states in his letter, July,
+1776:
+
+    It may be difficult to say what is the value of your property in
+    partnership with me. However, I will give it a name, and I do
+    say that I would willingly give you two, or perhaps three
+    thousand pounds for your assignment of your third part of the
+    Act of Parliament. But I should be sorry to make you so bad a
+    bargain, or to make any bargain at all that tended to deprive me
+    of your friendship, acquaintance, and assistance, hoping that we
+    shall harmoniously live to wear out the twenty-five years, which
+    I had rather do than gain a Nabob's fortune by being the sole
+    proprietor.
+
+This is the kind of expression from the heart to make a partner happy
+and resolve to do his utmost for one who in the recipient's heart had
+transposed positions, and is now friend first, and partner afterward.
+
+The marriage took place in July, 1776. Two children were born, both of
+whom died in youth. Mrs. Watt lived until a ripe old age and enjoyed the
+fruits of her husband's success and fame. She died in 1832. Arago
+praises her, and says "Various talents, sound judgment, and strength of
+mind rendered her a worthy companion."
+
+It is difficult to realise that many yet with us were contemporaries of
+Mrs. Watt, and not a few yet living were contemporaries of Watt himself,
+for he did not pass away until 1819, eighty-six years ago, so much a
+thing of yesterday is the material development and progress of the
+world, which had its basis, start and accomplishment in the steam
+engine.
+
+The reasons given by Boulton for being unable to proceed to the side of
+his friend and partner in Glasgow, shed clear light upon the condition
+of affairs at Soho. Their London agent, like Watt, was also to be
+married and would be absent. Fothergill had to proceed to London. Scale,
+one of the managers, was absent. Important visitors were constantly
+arriving. Said Boulton:
+
+    Our copper bottom hath plagued us very much by steam leaks, and
+    therefore I have had one cast (with its conducting pipe) all in
+    one piece; since which the engine doth not take more than 10
+    feet of steam, and I hope to reduce that quantity, as we have
+    just received the new piston, which shall be put in and at work
+    tomorrow. Our Soho engine never was in such good order as at
+    present. Bloomfield and Willey (engines) are both well, and I
+    doubt not but Bow engine will be better than any of 'em.
+
+He concludes, "I did not sleep last night, my mind being absorbed by
+steam." Means for increasing the heating surface swept through his mind,
+by applying "in copper spheres within the water," the present flue
+system, also for working steam expansively, "being clear the principle
+is sound."
+
+To add to Boulton's anxieties, he had received a summons to attend the
+Solicitor-General next week in opposition to Gainsborough, a clergyman
+who claimed to be the original inventor. "This is a disagreeable
+circumstance, particularly at this season, when you are absent. Harrison
+is in London and idleness is in our engine shop."
+
+Watt wrote Boulton on July 28, 1776, apologising for his long absence
+and stating he was now ready to return, and would start "Tuesday first"
+for Liverpool, where he expected to meet Boulton. Meanwhile, the latter
+had been called to London by the Gainsborough business. A note from him,
+however, reached Watt at Liverpool, in which he says, "As to your
+absence, say nothing about it. I will forgive it this time, _provided
+you promise me never to marry again_."
+
+In due time, Mr. and Mrs. Watt arrived and settled early in August,
+1776, in Birmingham, which was hereafter to be their permanent home,
+although, as we shall see, Watt never ceased to keep in close touch with
+his native town of Greenock and his Glasgow friends. His heart still
+warmed to the tartan, the soft, broad Scotch accent never forsook him;
+nor, we may be sure, did the refrain ever leave his heart----
+
+    And may dishonour blot our name
+      And quench our household fires,
+    If me or mine forget thy name,
+      Thou dear land of my Sires,
+
+Many a famous Scot has the fair South in recent times called to
+her--Stephenson, Ruskin, Carlyle, Mill, Gladstone and others--but never
+before or since, one whose work was the transformation of the world.
+
+At last we have Watt permanently settled alongside the great works to
+which he was hereafter to devote his rare abilities until his retirement
+at the expiration of the partnership in 1800. His labors at Soho soon
+began to tell. The works increased their celebrity beyond all others
+then known, for materials, workmanship and invention.
+
+The mines of Cornwall promised to become unworkable; indeed, many
+already had became so. The Newcomen engines could no longer drain the
+deepened mines. Several orders for Watt engines had been received, and
+as much depended upon the success of the first, Watt resolved to
+superintend its erection himself. Mrs. Watt and he started over the
+terrible road into Cornwall, and had to take up their abode with the
+superintendent of the mine, there being no other house for miles around.
+Naturally the builders and attendants of the Newcomen engine viewed
+Watt's invasion of their district with no kindly feelings. Great
+jealousy arose and Watt's sensitive nature was sorely tried. Many
+attempts to thwart him were met with, and, taken altogether, his life in
+Cornwall was far from agreeable.
+
+The engine was erected, the day of trial came, mining men, engineers,
+mining proprietors and others assembled from all quarters to see the
+start. Many of the spectators interested in other engines would not have
+shed tears had it failed, but it started splendidly making eleven
+eight-foot strokes per minute, which broke the record. Three cheers for
+the Scotch engineer! It soon worked with greater power and more
+steadily, and "forked" more water than the ordinary engines with only
+about one-third the consumption of coal. Watt wrote:
+
+    I understand all the west country captains are to be here
+    tomorrow to see the prodigy. The velocity, violence, magnitude,
+    and horrible noise of the engine give universal satisfaction to
+    all beholders, believers or not. I have once or twice trimmed
+    the engine to end the stroke gracefully and to make less noise,
+    but Mr. Wilson cannot sleep without it seems quite furious, so I
+    have left it to the enginemen; and, by the by, the noise seems
+    to convey great ideas of its power to the ignorant, who seem to
+    be no more taken with modest merit in an engine than in a man.
+
+Well said, modest, reserved philosopher with vast horse-power in that
+big head of yours, working in the closet noiselessly, driving deep but
+silently into the bosom of nature's secrets, pumping her deepest mines,
+discovering and bringing to the surface the genius which lay in steam to
+do your bidding and revolutionise life on earth! In this, the first
+triumph, there was recompense for all the trials Watt and his wife had
+endured in Cornwall.
+
+Readers will note that no workman had yet been developed who could be
+trusted to erect the engine. The master inventor had to go himself as
+the mechanical genius certain to cure all defects and ensure success.
+This shows how indispensable Watt was.
+
+Orders now flowed in, and Watt was needed to prepare the plans and
+drawings, no one being capable of relieving him of this. To-day we have
+draftsmen by the thousand to whom it would be easy routine work, as we
+have thousands to whom the erection of the Watt engine would be play.
+Watt was everywhere. At length he had to confess that "a very little
+more of this hurrying and vexation would knock me up altogether." At
+this moment he had just been called to return to Cornwall to erect the
+second engine. He says "I fancy I must be cut in pieces and a portion
+sent to every tribe in Israel." We may picture him reciting in
+Falstaffian mood, "Would my name were not so terrible to the enemy
+(deep-mine water) as it is. There can't a drowned-out mine peep its head
+out but I'm thrust upon it. Well, well, it always was the trick of my
+countrymen to make a good thing too common. Better rust to death than be
+scoured to nothing by this perpetual motion."
+
+Watt had a hard time of it in Cornwall during his next stay there, for
+he had to go again. He arrives at Redruth to find many troubles.
+
+    Forbes' eduction-pipe is a vile job, he writes, and full of
+    holes. The cylinder they have cast for Chacewater is still
+    worse, for it will hardly do at all. The Soho people have sent
+    here Chacewater pipe instead of Wheal Union, and the gudgeon
+    pipe has not arrived with the nozzles. These repeated
+    disappointments will ruin our credit in the country, and I
+    cannot stay here to bear the shame of such failures of promise.
+
+It is easy for present-day captains of industry to plume themselves upon
+their ability to select men sure to succeed well with any undertaking,
+and assume that Watt lacked the indispensable talent for selection, but
+he had been driven by sad experience to trust none but himself, the
+skilled workmen needed to co-operate with him not yet having been
+developed.
+
+We have not touched upon another source of great anxiety to him at this
+time. The enterprising Boulton would not have been the organiser he was
+unless blessed with a sanguine disposition and the capacity for shedding
+troubles. The business was rapidly extending in many branches, all
+needing capital; the engine business, promising though it was, was no
+exception. Little money was yet due from sales and much had been spent
+developing the invention. Boulton's letter to Watt constantly urged cash
+collections, while mine-owners were not disposed to pay until further
+tests were made. Boulton suggested loans from Truro bankers on security
+of the engines, but Watt found this impracticable. The engines were
+doing astonishingly well to-day, but who could ensure their lasting
+qualities? Watt shows good judgment in suggesting that Wilkinson, the
+famous foundryman, should be taken into partnership. He urges his
+enterprising partner to apply the pruning knife and cut down expenses
+naively assuring him that "he was practising all the frugality in his
+power." As Watt's personal expenses then were only ten dollars per week,
+a smile rises at the prudent Scot's possible contribution to reduction
+in expenditure. But he was on the right lines, and at least gave Boulton
+the benefit of example. Watt was never disposed to look on the bright
+side of things, and to add to Boulton's load, the third partner,
+Fothergill, was even more desponding than Watt. When Boulton went away
+to raise means, he was pursued by letters from Fothergill telling him
+day by day of imperative needs. In one he was of opinion that "the
+creditors must be called together; better to face the worst than to go
+on in the neck-and-neck race with ruin." Boulton would hurry back to
+quiet Fothergill and keep the ship afloat. Here he shines out
+resplendently. He proved equal to the emergency. His courage and
+determination rose in proportion to the difficulties to be overcome,
+borne up by his invariable hope and unshakable belief in the value of
+Watt's condensing engine, he triumphed at last, pledging, as security
+for a loan of $70,000, the royalties derivable from the engine patents,
+and an annuity for a loan of $35,000 more. So small a sum as $105,000
+sufficed to keep afloat the big ship laden with all their treasures.
+
+There was a period of great depression in Britain when Boulton and Watt
+were thus in deep water, and at such times credit is sensitive in the
+extreme. A small balance on the right side performs wonders. This
+recalls to the writer how, once in the history of his own firm, credit
+was kept high during a panic by using the identical sum Boulton raised,
+$70,000, from a reserve fund that had been laid away and came in very
+opportunely at the critical time. Every single dollar weighs a
+hundredfold when credit trembles in the balance. A leading nerve
+specialist in New York once said that the worst malady he had to treat
+was the man of affairs whose credit was suspected. His unfailing remedy
+was: "Call your creditors together, explain all and ask their support. I
+can then do you some good, but not till then." His patients who did this
+found themselves restored to vigor. They were supported by creditors and
+all was bright once more. The wise doctor was sound in his advice. If
+the firm has neither speculated nor gambled (synonymous terms), nor
+lived extravagantly, nor endorsed for others, and the business is on a
+solid foundation, no people have so much at stake in sustaining it as
+the creditors; they will rally round it and think more of the firm than
+ever, because they will see behind their money the best of all
+securities--men at the helm who are not afraid and know how to meet a
+storm.
+
+Boulton's timid partners no doubt were amazed that he was so blind to
+the dangers which they with clearer vision saw so clearly. How deluded
+they were. We may be sure neither of them saw the danger half as vividly
+as he, but it is not the part of a leader to reveal to his fellows all
+that he sees or fears. His part is to look dangers steadily in the face
+and challenge them. It is the great leader who inspires in his followers
+contempt for the danger which he sees in much truer proportion than
+they. This Boulton did, for behind all else in his character there lay
+the indomitable will, the do or die resolve. He had staked his life upon
+the hazard of a die and he would stand the cost. "But if we fail," often
+said the timid pair to him, as Macbeth did to his resolute partner, and
+the same answer came, "_We_ fail." That's all. "One knockdown will not
+finish this fight. We'll get up again, never fear. We know no such word
+as fail."[1]
+
+One source of serious trouble arose from Watt and Boulton having been
+so anxious at first to introduce their engines that they paid small
+regard to terms. When their success was proved, they offered to settle,
+taking one-third the value of the fuel saved. This was a liberal offer,
+for, in addition to the mine-owners saving two-thirds of the former cost
+of fuel consumed by the previous engines, mines became workable, which
+without the Watt engine must have been abandoned. These terms however
+were not accepted, and a long series of disputes arose, ending in some
+cases only with the patent-right itself. It was resolved that all future
+engines should be furnished only upon the terms before stated, Watt
+declaring that otherwise he would not put pen to paper to make new
+drawings. "Let our terms be moderate," he writes, "and, if possible,
+consolidated into money _a priori_, and it is certain we shall get
+_some_ money, enough to keep us out of jail, in continual apprehension
+of which I live at present." Imprisonment for debt, let it be
+remembered, had not been abolished. One of the most beneficent forward
+steps that our time can boast of is the Bankruptcy Court. However hard
+we may yet be upon offenders against us, society, through humane laws,
+forgives our debtors in money matters, and gives a clear bill of health
+after honorable acquittal in bankruptcy, and a fresh start.
+
+The result proved Watt's wisdom. His engines were needed to save the
+mines. No other could. Applications came in freely upon his terms, and
+as Watt was a poor hand at bargaining, he insisted that Boulton should
+come to Cornwall and attend to that part.
+
+Meanwhile great attention was being paid to the works and all pertaining
+to the men and methods. The firm established perhaps the first benefit
+society of workmen. Every one was a member and contributed according to
+his earnings. Out of this fund payments were made to the sick or
+disabled in varying amounts. No member of the Soho Friendly Society,
+except a few irreclaimable drunkards, ever came upon the parish.
+
+When Boulton's son came of age, seven hundred were dined. No
+well-behaved workman was ever turned adrift. Fathers employed introduced
+their sons into the works and brought them up under their own eye,
+watching over their conduct and mechanical training. Thus generation
+after generation followed each other at Soho works.
+
+On another occasion Boulton writes Watt in Cornwall, "I have thought it
+but respectful to give our folks a dinner to-day. There were present
+Murdoch, Lawson, Pearson, Perkins, Malcom, Robert Muir, all Scotchmen,
+John Bull and Wilson and self, for the engines are now all finished and
+the men have behaved well and are attached to us."
+
+Six Scotch and three English in the English works of Soho thought worthy
+of dining with their employer! It was, we may be sure, a very rare
+occurrence in that day, but worthy of the true captain of industry. Here
+is an early "invasion" from the north. We are reminded of Sir Charles
+Dilke's statement in his "Greater Britain," that, in his tour round the
+world, he found ten Scotchmen for every Englishman in high position.
+Owing, of course, to the absence of scope at home the Scot has had to
+seek his career abroad.
+
+A master-stroke this, probably the first dinner of its kind in Britain,
+and no doubt more highly appreciated by the honored guests than an
+advance in wages. Splendid workmen do not live upon wages alone.
+Appreciation felt and shown by their employer, as in this case, is the
+coveted reward.
+
+We have read how Watt was much troubled in Scotland with poor mechanics.
+Not one good craftsman could he then find. After seeing Soho, where the
+standard was much higher, he declared that the Scotch mechanic was very
+much inferior; he was prejudiced against them. Murdoch, however, the
+first Scot at Soho, soon eclipsed all, and no doubt under his wing
+other Scots gained a trial with the result indicated. It is very
+significant that even in the earliest days of the steam engine,
+Scotchmen should exhibit such talent for its construction, forecasting
+their present pre-eminence in marine engineering.
+
+Small wonder that the Soho works became the model for all others. The
+last words in Boulton's letter, "and are attached to us," tell the
+story. No danger of strikes, of lockouts, or quarrels of any kind in
+such establishments as that of Boulton and Watt, who proved that they in
+turn were attached to their men. Mutual attachment between employers and
+employed is the panacea for all troubles--yes, better than a panacea,
+the preventer of troubles.
+
+After repeated calls from Watt, Boulton took the journey to Cornwall in
+October, 1778, although Fothergill was again uttering lamentable
+prophecies of impending ruin, and the London agent was imploring his
+presence there upon financial matters pressing in the extreme. Boulton
+succeeded in borrowing $10,000 from Truro bankers on the security of
+engines erected, and settled several disputes, getting $3,500 per year
+royalty for one engine and $2,000 per year for another. At last, after
+nine years of arduous labor since the invention was hailed as
+successful, the golden harvest so long expected began to replenish the
+empty treasury. The heavy liabilities, however, remained a source of
+constant anxiety. No remedy could be found against "this consumption of
+the purse."
+
+Watt had again to encounter the lack of competent, sober workmen to run
+engines. The Highland blood led him at last into severe measures, and he
+insisted upon discharging two or three of the most drunken. Here Boulton
+had great difficulty in restraining him. Much had to be endured, and
+occasional bouts of drunkenness overlooked, although serious accidents
+resulted. At last two men appeared whose services proved
+invaluable--Murdoch, already mentioned, and Law--one of whom became
+famous. Watt was absent when the former called and asked Boulton for
+employment. The young Scot was the son of a well-known millwright near
+Ayr who had made several improvements. His famous son worked with him,
+but being ambitious and hearing of the fame of Boulton and Watt, he
+determined to seek entrance to Soho works and learn the highest order of
+handicraft. Boulton had told him that there was at present no place
+open, but noticing the strange cap the awkward young man had been
+dangling in his hands, he asked what it was made of. "Timmer," said the
+lad. "What, out of wood?" "Yes." "_How_ was it made?" "I turned it
+mysel' in a bit lathey o' my own making." This was enough for that rare
+judge of men. Here was a natural-born mechanic, certain. The young man
+was promptly engaged for two years at fifteen shillings per week when
+in shop, seventeen shillings when abroad, and eighteen shillings when in
+London. His history is the usual march upward until he became his
+employers' most trusted manager in all their mechanical operations.
+While engaged upon one critical job, where the engine had defied
+previous attempts to put it to rights, the people in the house where
+Murdoch lodged were awakened one night by heavy tramping in his room
+over-head. Upon entering, Murdoch was seen in his bed clothes heaving
+away at the bed post in his sleep, calling out "Now she goes, lads, now
+she goes." His heart was in his work. He had a mission, and only one--to
+make that engine go.
+
+Of course he rose. There's no holding down such a "dreamer" anywhere in
+this world. It was not only that he had zeal, for he had sense with it,
+and was not less successful in conquering the rude Cornishmen who had
+baffled, annoyed and intimidated Watt. He won their hearts. His ability
+did not end with curing the defects of machinery; he knew how to manage
+men. At first he had to depend upon his physical powers. He was an
+athlete not indisposed to lead the strenuous life. He had not been very
+long in Cornwall before half a dozen of the mining captains, a class
+that had tormented poor, retiring and modest Watt, entered the
+engine-room and began their bullying tricks on him. The Scotch blood was
+up, Murdoch quietly locked the door and said to the captains, "Now then
+gentlemen, you shall not leave until we have settled matters once for
+all." He selected the biggest Cornishman and squared off. The contest
+was soon over. Murdoch vanquished the bully and was ready for the next.
+The captains, seeing the kind of man he was, offered terms of peace,
+hands were shaken all round and they parted good friends, and remained
+so. We are past that rude age. The skilled, educated manager of to-day
+can use no weapon so effectively with skilled men as the supreme force
+of gentleness, the manner, language and action of the educated man, even
+to the calm, low voice never raised to passionate pitch. He conquers and
+commands others because he has command of himself.
+
+We must not lose sight of Murdoch. In addition to his rare qualities, he
+possessed mechanical genius. He was the inventor of lighting by gas, and
+it was he who made the first model of a locomotive. There was no
+emergency with engines, no accident, no blunder, but Murdoch was called
+in. We read with surprise that his wages even in 1780 were only five
+dollars per week. He then modestly asked for an advance, but this was
+not given. A present of one hundred dollars, however, was made to him in
+recognition of his unusual services. Probably the explanation of the
+failure to increase his wages at the time was that, owing to the
+condition of the business, no rise in wages could be made to one which
+would involve an advance to others. Murdoch remained loyal to the
+firm, however, although invited into partnership by another. Afterward
+he received due reward. He had always a strong aversion to partnership,
+no doubt well founded in this case, for during many years failure seemed
+almost as likely as success. Watt has much to say in his letters about
+"William" (Murdoch), who, more than anyone, relieved him from
+trouble.[2]
+
+The bargainings with mine-owners brought on intense heartaches and broke
+Watt down completely. Boulton had to go to him again in Cornwall in the
+autumn of 1779, and as usual succeeded in adjusting many disputes by
+wise compromises with the grasping owners which Watt's strict sense of
+justice had denied. Many of these had paid no royalties for years,
+others disputed Watt's unerring register of fuel consumption (another of
+his most ingenious inventions now in general use for many purposes), a
+more heinous offense in his eyes than that of non-payment. "The
+rascality of man," he writes, "is almost beyond belief." He never was
+more despondent or more irritable than now. No one was better aware of
+his weakness than himself. In short, his heartaches and nervousness
+unfitted him for business. As usual, he attributed his discouragement
+chiefly to his financial obligations. The firm was as hard pressed as
+ever. Indeed a new source of danger had developed. Fothergill's affairs
+became involved, and had it not been for Boulton's capital and credit,
+the firm of Boulton and Fothergill could not have maintained payment.
+This had caused a drain upon their resources. Boulton sold the estate
+which had come to him by his wife, and the greater part of his father's
+property, and mortgaged the remainder. It is evident that the great
+captain had taken in hand far too many enterprises. Probably he had not
+heard the new doctrine: "Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch
+that basket." He had even ventured considerable sums in blockade running
+during the American Revolutionary War. It was not without good reason,
+therefore, that the more cautious Scot addressed to him so many pathetic
+letters: "I beg of you to attend to these money matters. I cannot rest
+in my bed until they have some determinate form." Watt's inexperience in
+money matters caused apprehensions of ruin to arise whenever financial
+measures were discussed. He was at this time utterly wretched, and
+Mrs. Watt at last became anxious, long and bravely as she had hitherto
+borne up and striven to dispel her husband's fears. Never before had she
+ventured to speak to Boulton upon the subject. She now broke the silence
+and wrote him in Cornwall a touching letter, stating that her husband's
+health and spirits had become much worse since Boulton had left Soho. "I
+know there are several things that so prey upon his mind as to render
+him perfectly miserable. They never cross his mind, but he is rendered
+unfit to do anything for a long time." She describes these financial
+demons that torment him and begs that her writing should not be told to
+Watt, as it might only add to his troubles. The appeal brings Mrs. Watt
+before us in a most engaging light.
+
+A study of the problem was made upon Boulton's return and he agreed to
+close two departments of the business which were so far unprofitable,
+thus entering upon the right path. The engine having proved itself
+indispensable, the demand for it was becoming great and pressing from
+various countries. To concentrate upon its manufacture was obviously the
+true policy. The great captain's enterprise was not often expended upon
+failures, and it is with pleasure we find that among the profitable
+branches which Boulton had encouraged Watt in introducing at Soho, was
+the copying-press, which Watt invented in 1778, and which we use to
+this day. In July of that year he writes Dr. Black that he has "lately
+discovered a method of copying writing instantaneously, provided it has
+been written within twenty-four hours. I send you a specimen and will
+impart the secret if it will be of any use to you. It enables me to copy
+all my business letters." He kept this secret for two years, and in May,
+1780, secured a patent after he had completed details of the press and
+experimented with the ink. One hundred and fifty were made and sold.
+Thirty of these went abroad. It steadily made its way. Watt, writing
+some thirty years later, said it had proved so useful to him that it was
+well worth all the trouble of perfecting it, even if it brought no
+profit.
+
+We think of Watt and the steam engine appears. Let us however note the
+unobtrusive little copying-press on the table at his side. Extremes meet
+here. It would be difficult to name an invention more universally used,
+in all offices where man labors in any field of activity. In the list of
+modest inventions of greatest usefulness, the modern copying-press must
+take high rank, and this we owe entirely to Watt.
+
+Of the same period as the copying-machine is his invention of a
+drying-machine for cloth, consisting of three cylinders of copper over
+which the cloth must turn over and under while cylinders are filled with
+steam, the cloth to be alternately wound off and on the two wooden
+rollers, by which means it will pass over three cylinders in
+succession. This machine was erected for Watt's father-in-law, Mr.
+MacGregor in Glasgow, by an ingenious mechanic, John Gardiner, often
+employed by Watt in earlier years. "This I apprehend," he writes to
+David Brewster in 1814, "to be the original from which such machines
+were made." When we consider the extent to which such steam
+drying-machines are used in our day, our estimate of the credit due to
+Watt cannot be small. The drying-machine is no unfit companion to the
+copying-machine.
+
+Watt revisited Cornwall in 1781 to make an inspection of all the
+engines. Much he found needing attention and improvement. His evenings
+were spent designing "road steam-carriages." This was before the day of
+railroads, and the carriages were to be driven by steam over the
+ordinary coach roads. He filled a quarto drawing-book with different
+plans for these, and covered the idea in one of his patent
+specifications. Boulton suggested in 1781 that the idea of rotary motion
+should be developed, which Watt had from the first regarded as of prime
+importance. It was for this he had invented his original wheel engine,
+and in his first patent of 1769 he describes one method of securing it.
+It occurred to him that the ordinary engine might be adapted to give the
+rotary motion. He wrote from Cornwall to Boulton: "As to the circular
+motion, I will apply it as soon as I can." He prepared a model upon his
+return to Soho, using a crank connected with the working-beam of the
+engine for that purpose, which worked satisfactorily. There was nothing
+new in the crank motion; it was used on every spinning-wheel,
+grind-stone and foot-lathe turned by hand, but its application to the
+steam-engine was new. As early as 1771, he writes:
+
+    I have at times had my thoughts a good deal upon the subject. In
+    general, it appears to me that a crank of a sufficient sweep
+    will be by much the sweetest motion, and perhaps not the
+    dearest, if its durability be considered ... I then resolved to
+    adopt the crank ... Of this I caused a model to be made, which
+    performed to satisfaction. But being then very much engaged with
+    other business, I neglected to take a patent immediately, and
+    having employed a blackguard of the name of Cartwright (who was
+    afterward hanged), about this model, he, when in company with
+    some of the same sort who worked at Wasborough's mill, and were
+    complaining of its irregularities and frequent disasters, told
+    them he could put them in a way to make a rotative motion which
+    would not go out of order nor stun them with its noise, and
+    accordingly explained to them what he had seen me do. Soon after
+    which, John Steed, who was engineer at Wasborough's mill, took a
+    patent for a rotative motion with a crank, and applied it to
+    their engine. Suspicions arising of Cartwright's treachery, he
+    was strictly questioned, and confessed his part in the
+    transaction when too late to be of service to us.
+
+Overtures were made by Wasborough to exchange patents and work together,
+which Watt scornfully rejected. He writes:
+
+    Though I am not so saucy as many of my countrymen, I have enough
+    innate pride to prevent me from doing a mean action because a
+    servile prudence may dictate it ... I will never meanly sue a
+    thief to give me my own again unless I have nothing left behind.
+
+His blood was up. No dealings with rascals!
+
+July, 1781, Watt had finished his studies, went to Penryn, and swore he
+had "invented certain new methods of applying the vibrating or
+reciprocating motion of steam or fire engines to produce a continued
+rotation or circular motion round an axis or centre, and thereby to give
+motion to the wheels of mills or other machines."
+
+Watt proceeded to work out the plan of the rotary engine, stimulated by
+numerous inquiries for steam engines for driving all kinds of mills. He
+found that "the people in London, Manchester and Birmingham are
+steam-mill mad."
+
+During many long years of trial with their financial troubles, inferior
+and drunken workmen, disappointing engines, Cornish mine-owners to annoy
+him, it is highly probable that Watt only found relief in retiring to
+his garret to gratify his passion for solving difficult mechanical
+problems. We may even imagine that from his serious mission--the
+development of the engine--which was ever present, he sometimes flew to
+the numerous less exhausting inventions for recreation, as the weary
+student flies to fiction. His mind at this period seems never to have
+been at rest. His voluminous correspondence constantly reveals one
+invention after another upon which he was engaged. A new micrometer, a
+dividing screw, a new surveying-quadrant, problems for clearing the
+observed distance of the moon from a star of the effects of refraction
+and parallax, a drawing-machine, a copying-machine for sculpture--anything
+and everything he used or saw seems immediately to have been subjected to
+the question: "Cannot this be improved?" usually with a response in the
+affirmative.
+
+As we have read, he had long studied the question of a locomotive steam
+carriage. In Muirhead's Biography, several pages are devoted to this. In
+his seventh "new improvement," in his patent of 1784, he describes "the
+principle and construction of steam engines which are applied to give
+motion to wheel carriages for removing persons, goods, or other matter
+from place to place, in which case the engines themselves must be
+portable." Mr. Murdoch made a model of the engine here specified which
+performed well, but nothing important came of all this until 1802, when
+the problem was instantly changed by Watt's friend, Mr. Edgeworth,
+writing him, "I have always thought that steam would become the
+universal lord, and that we should in time scorn post-horses. _An iron
+railroad would be a cheaper thing than a road of the common
+construction._" Here lay in a few words the idea from which our railway
+system has sprung. Surely Edgeworth deserves to be placed among the
+immortals.[3] As in the case of the steamship, however, the
+indispensable steam engine of Watt had to furnish the motive power. The
+railroad is only the necessary smooth track upon which the steam engine
+could perform its miracle. It is significant that steam power upon roads
+required the abandonment of the usual highway. So we may believe is the
+automobile to force new roads of its own, or to widen existing highways,
+rendering those safe under certain rules for speed of twenty miles per
+hour, or even more, when they were intended only for eight or ten.
+
+The reading lamp of Watt's day was a poor affair, and as he never saw an
+inefficient instrument without studying its improvement, he produced a
+new lamp. He wrote Argand of the Argand burner upon the subject and for
+a long time Watt lamps were made at the Soho works, which gave a light
+surpassing in steadiness and brilliance anything of the kind that had
+yet appeared. He gives four plans for lamps, "with the reservoir below
+and the stem as tall as you please." He also made an instrument for
+determining the specific gravity of liquids, and a year after this he
+"found out a method of working tubes of the elastic resin without
+dissolving it." The importance of such tubes for a thousand purposes in
+the arts and sciences is now appreciated.
+
+Watt gave much time to an arithmetical machine which he found
+exceedingly simple to plan, but he adds, "I have learnt by experience
+that in mechanics many things fall out between the cup and the mouth."
+He describes what it is to accomplish, but it remained for Babbage at a
+much later date to perfect the machine. A machine for copying sculpture
+amused him for a time but it was never finished.
+
+If any difficulty of a mechanical nature arose, people naturally turned
+to Watt for a solution. Thus the Glasgow University failed to get pipes
+for conveying water across the Clyde to stand, the channel of the river
+being covered with mud and shifty sand, full of inequalities, and
+subject to the pressure of a considerable body of water. Application was
+at last made to the recognised genius. If he could not solve it, who
+could? This was just one of the things that Watt liked to do. He
+promptly devised an articulated suction pipe with parts formed on the
+principle of a lobster's tail. This crustacean tube a thousand feet long
+solved the matter. Watt stated that his services were induced solely by
+a desire to be of use in procuring good water to the city of Glasgow,
+and to promote the prosperity of a company which had risked so much for
+the public good. These were handsomely acknowledged by the presentation
+to him of a valuable piece of plate.
+
+As another proof of Watt's habit of thinking of everything that could
+possibly be improved, it may be news to many readers that the
+consumption of the smoke from steam engines early attracted his
+attention, and that he patented devices for this. These have been
+substantially followed in the numerous attempts which have been made
+from time to time to reduce the huge volumes of smoke that keep so many
+cities under a cloud. He was successful and his son James writes to him
+in 1790 from Manchester:
+
+    It is astonishing what an impression the smoke-consuming power
+    of the engine has made upon everybody hereabouts. They scarcely
+    trusted to the evidence of their senses. You would be diverted
+    to hear the strange hypotheses which have been stated to account
+    for it.
+
+This is all very well. It is certain that most of the smoke made in
+manufacturing concerns can be consumed, if manufacturers are compelled
+by law to erect sufficient heating surface and to include the well-known
+appliances, including those for careful firing, but no city so far as
+the writer knows has ever been able to enforce effective laws. There
+remain the dwellings of the people to deal with, which give forth smoke
+in large cities in the aggregate far exceeding that made by the
+manufacturing plants. New York pursues the only plan for ensuring the
+clearest skies of any large city in the world where coal is generally
+used, by making the use of bituminous coal unlawful. The enormous growth
+of present New York (45 per cent. in last decade) is not a little
+dependent upon the attraction of clear blue sides and the resulting
+cleanliness of all things in and about the city compared with others.
+When, by the progress of invention or new methods of distributing heat,
+smoke is banished, as it probably will be some day, many rich citizens
+will remain in their respective western cities instead of flocking to
+the clear blue-skied metropolis, as they are now so generally doing.
+
+Such were some of Watt's by-products. His recreation, if found at all,
+was found in change of occupation. We read of no idle days, no pleasure
+trips, no vacations, only change of work.
+
+Rumors of new inventions of engines far excelling his continued to
+disturb Watt, and much of his time was given to investigation. He
+thought of a caloric air engine as possibly one of the new ideas; then
+of the practicability of producing mechanical power by the absorption
+and condensation of gas on the one hand and by its disengagement and
+expansion on the other. His mind seemed to range over the entire field
+of possibilities.
+
+The Hornblower engine had been heralded as sure to displace the Watt.
+When it was described, it proved to be as Watt said, "no less than our
+double-cylinder engine, worked upon our principle of expansion. It is
+fourteen years since I mentioned it to Mr. Smeaton." Watt had explained
+to Dr. Small his method of working steam expansively as early as May,
+1769, and had adopted it in the Soho engine and also in the Shadwell
+engine erected in that year.
+
+We have seen before that Watt had to retrace his steps and abandon for a
+time in later engines what he had before ventured upon.
+
+The application of steam for propelling boats upon the water was, at
+this time (1788), attracting much attention. Boulton and Watt were urged
+to undertake experiments. This they declined to entertain, having their
+facilities fully employed in their own field, but finally Fulton, on
+August 6, 1803, ordered an engine from them from his own drawings,
+intended for this purpose, repeating the order in person in 1804. It was
+shipped to America early in 1805, and in 1807 placed upon the Clermont,
+which ran upon the Hudson River as a passenger boat, attaining a speed
+of about five miles an hour. This was the first steamboat that was ever
+used for passengers, and altho Fulton neither invented the boat nor the
+engine, nor the combination of the two, still he is entitled to great
+credit for overcoming innumerable difficulties sufficient to discourage
+most men. Fulton, who was the son of a Scotsman from Dumfrieshire,
+visited Syminton's steamboat, the _Charlotte Dundas_, in Scotland, in
+1801, and had seen it successfully towing canal boats upon the Forth and
+Clyde Canal. This was the first boat ever propelled by steam
+successfully for commercial purposes. It was subsequently discarded, not
+because it did not tow the canal boats, but because the revolving
+paddle-wheels caused waves that threatened to wash away the canal banks.
+
+Several engines were sent to New York. The men in charge of one found on
+shipboard a pattern-maker going to America named John Hewitt. He settled
+in America January 12th, 1796, and became the father of the late famous
+and deeply lamented Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, long a member of Congress and
+afterward mayor of New York, foremost in many improvements in the city,
+the last being the Subway, just opened, which owes its inception to him.
+For this service, the Chamber of Commerce presented him with a memorial
+medal. Mr. Hewitt married a daughter of Peter Cooper, founder of the
+Cooper Institute, which owes its wonderful development chiefly to him.
+His children devote themselves and their fortunes to its management. At
+the time of his death in 1902, he was pronounced "the first private
+citizen of the Republic." Small engine-shops (of which the ruins still
+remain), called "Soho" after their prototype, were erected by his father
+near New York city, on the Greenwood division of the Erie Railroad. The
+railroad station was called "Soho" by Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, who was then
+president of the railroad company. Upon Mr. Hewitt's eightieth birthday
+congratulations poured in from all quarters. One cable from abroad
+attracted attention as appropriate and deserved: "Ten octaves every
+note truly struck and grandly sung." No man in private life passed away
+in our day with such general lamentation. The Republic got even more
+valuable material than engines from the old home in the ship that
+arrived on January 12, 1796.
+
+We must not permit ourselves to forget that it was not until the Watt
+engine was applied to steam navigation that the success of the latter
+became possible. It was only by this that it could be made practicable,
+so that the steamship is the product of the steam-engine, and it is to
+Watt we owe the modern twenty-three-thousand-ton monster (and larger
+monsters soon to come), which keeps its course against wind and tide,
+almost "unshaked of motion," for this can now properly be said.
+Passengers crossing the Atlantic from port to port now scarcely know
+anything of irregular motion, and never more than the gentlest of slight
+heaves, even during the gale that
+
+    "Catches the ruffian billows by their tops,
+    Curling their monstrous heads."
+
+The ocean, traversed in these ships, is a smooth highway--nothing but a
+ferry--and a week spent upon it has become perhaps the most enjoyable
+and the most healthful of holiday excursions, provided the prudent
+excursionist has left behind positive instructions that wireless
+telegrams shall not follow.
+
+[1] Perhaps there is no instance so striking as this of the immense
+difference that sometimes lies in the mere accent given one
+monosyllable. Until Mrs. Siddons revealed the real Lady Macbeth, every
+actress had replied, "We fail?" interrogatively, and then encouragingly,
+"Screw your courage to the sticking-point and we'll _not_ fail." Such
+the commonplace reciters. When genius touched the word it flashed and
+sparkled. Then came the prompt response. "_We_ fail." She was of such
+stuff as meets failure without fear. For this revelation the actress
+becomes immortal, since her name is linked with the greatest son of
+time. One word did it, nay a new accent upon a monosyllable--a trifling
+change say you? "I make it a rule never to mind trifles," said a great
+man. "So should I if I could only tell what were trifles," said a
+greater. One is far on if he can predict consequences that may flow from
+one kind word or the intonation of a word. Fortune sometimes hangs upon
+a glance or nod of kindly recognition as we pass.
+
+[2] An American Murdoch was found in Captain Jones, the best manager of
+works of his day. He entered the service of the Carnegie Steel Company
+as a young mechanic at two dollars per day, a perfect copy of Murdoch in
+many important respects. Reading Murdoch's history, we have found
+ourselves substituting the "captain," a title well earned on the field
+in the war for the Union, which he entered as a private. Once he was
+offered an interest in the firm, which would have made him one of the
+band of young millionaires. His reply was, "Thank you, don't want to
+have anything to do with business. These works (Steel rail mills,
+Pittsburg) give me enough to think of. You just give me a 'thundering
+salary.'" "All right, Captain, the salary of the president of the United
+States is yours." Also like Murdoch, he was an inventor. His principal
+invention, recently sustained by the Supreme Court, would easily yield
+from those who appropriated it and refused payment, at least five
+millions of dollars in royalties. Captain Jones was born in Pennsylvania
+of Welsh parents. Murdoch won promotion at last, and was first
+superintendent of one of the special departments, and later had general
+supervision of the mechanical department, becoming "the right hand man"
+of the firm. The young partners dealt generously with him, and treated
+him with reverence and affection to the end. He died in his eighty-fifth
+year. Captain Jones was injured at the works and passed away just as a
+touch of age came upon him, as many war veterans did. Fortunate is the
+firm that discovers a William Murdoch or a William Jones, and gives him
+swing to do the work of an original in his own way.
+
+[3] Since the above was put in type I learn that in his forthcoming book
+upon "The Development of the Locomotive," which promises to become the
+standard, Mr. Angus Sinclair says: "The first suggestion of a railroad
+for goods transportation appears to have been made before The Literary
+and Philosophical Society of Newcastle by a Mr Thomas, of Denton, in
+February, 1800. Two years later Richard Edgeworth, father of the famous
+novelist, suggested that it should be extended for the carrying of
+passengers." There is no record of Thomas's suggestion, as far as we
+know, but only tradition. Even if made, however, it seems to have lain
+dead. Edgeworth evidently knew nothing of it, and as it was his letter
+to Watt which seems first to have attracted public attention, the
+passage is allowed to stand as written.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SECOND PATENT
+
+
+The number and activity of rivals attracted to the steam engine and its
+possible improvement, some of whom had begun infringements upon the Watt
+patents, alarmed Messrs. Watt and Boulton so much that they decided Watt
+should apply for another patent, covering his important improvements
+since the first. Accordingly, October 25, 1781, the patent (already
+referred to on p. 91) was secured, "for certain new methods of producing
+a continued rotative motion around an axis or centre, and thereby to
+give motion to the wheels of mills or other machines."
+
+This patent was necessary in consequence of the difficulties experienced
+in working the steam wheels or rotatory engines described in the first
+patent of 1769, and by Watt's having been so unfairly anticipated, by
+Wasborough in the crank motion.
+
+No less than five different methods for rotatory motion are described in
+the patent, the fifth commonly known as the "sun and planet wheels," of
+which Watt writes to Boulton, January 3, 1782,
+
+    I have tried a model of one of my old plans of rotative engines,
+    revived and executed by Mr. Murdoch, which merits being
+    included in the specification as a fifth method; for which
+    purpose I shall send a drawing and description next post. It has
+    the singular property of going twice round for each stroke of
+    the engine, and may be made to go oftener round, if required,
+    without additional machinery.
+
+Then followed an explanation of the sketch which he sent, and two days
+later he wrote, "I send you the drawings of the fifth method, and
+thought to have sent you the description complete, but it was late last
+night before I finished so far, and to-day have a headache, therefore
+only send you a rough draft of part."
+
+In all of these Watt recommended that a fly-wheel be used to regulate
+the motion, but in the specification for the patent of the following
+year, 1782, his double-acting engine produced a more regular motion and
+rendered a fly-wheel unnecessary, "so that," he says, "in most of our
+great manufactories these engines now supply the place of water, wind
+and horse mills, and instead of carrying the work to the power, the
+prime agent is placed wherever it is most convenient to the
+manufacturer."
+
+This marks one of the most important stages in the development of the
+steam engine. It was at last the portable machine it remains to-day, and
+was placed wherever convenient, complete in itself and with the rotative
+motion adaptable for all manner of work. The ingenious substitutes Watt
+had to invent to avoid the obviously perfect crank motion have of course
+all been discarded, and nothing of these remains except as proofs,
+where none are needed, that genius has powers in reserve for
+emergencies; balked in one direction, it hews out another path for
+itself.
+
+While preparing the specification for this patent of 1781, Watt was busy
+upon another specification quite as important, which appeared in the
+following year, 1782. It embraced the following new improvements, the
+winnowing of numberless ideas and experiments that he had conceived and
+tested for some years previous:
+
+    1. The use of steam on the expansive principle; together with
+    various methods or contrivances (six in number, some of them
+    comprising various modifications), for equalising the expansive
+    power.
+
+    2. The double-acting engine; in which steam is admitted to press
+    the piston upward as well as downward; the piston being also
+    aided in its ascent as well as in its descent by a vacuum
+    produced by condensation on the other side.
+
+    3. The double-engine; consisting of two engines, primary and
+    secondary, of which the steam-vessels and condensers communicate
+    by pipes and valves, so that they can be worked either
+    independently or in concert; and make their strokes either
+    alternately or both together, as may be required.
+
+    4. The employment of a toothed rack and sector, instead of
+    chains, for guiding the piston-rod.
+
+    5. A rotative engine, or steam-wheel.
+
+Here we have three of the vital elements required toward the completion
+of the work: first, steam used expansively; second, the double-acting
+engine. It will be remembered that Watt's first engines only took in
+steam at the bottom of the cylinder, as Newcomen's did, but with this
+difference: Watt used the steam to perform work which Newcomen could not
+do, the latter only using steam to force the piston itself upward. Now
+came Watt's great step forward. Having a cylinder closed at the top,
+while the Newcomen cylinder remained open, it was as easy to admit steam
+at the top to press the piston down as to admit it at the bottom to
+press the piston up; also as easy to apply his condenser to the steam
+above as below, at the moment a vacuum was needed. All this was
+ingeniously provided for by numerous devices and covered by the patent.
+Third, he went one step farther to the compound engine, consisting of
+two engines, primary and secondary, working steam expansively
+independently or in concert, with strokes alternate or simultaneous. The
+compound engine was first thought of by Watt about 1767. He laid a large
+drawing of it on parchment before parliament when soliciting an
+extension of his first patent. The reason he did not proceed to
+construct it was "the difficulty he had encountered in teaching others
+the construction and use of the single engine, and in overcoming
+prejudices"; the patent of 1782 was only taken out because he found
+himself "beset with a host of plagiaries and pirates."
+
+One of the earliest of these double-acting engines was erected at the
+Albion Mills, London, in 1786. Watt writes:
+
+    The mention of Albion Mills induces me to say a few words
+    respecting an establishment so unjustly calumniated in its day,
+    and the premature destruction of which, by fire, in 1791, was,
+    not improbably, imputed to design. So far from being, as
+    misrepresented, a monopoly injurious to the public, it was the
+    means of considerably reducing the price of flour while it
+    continued at work.
+
+The "double-acting" engine was followed by the "compound" engine, of
+which Watt says:
+
+    A new compound engine, or method of connecting together the
+    cylinders and condensers of two or more distinct engines, so as
+    to make the steam which has been employed to press on the piston
+    of the first, act expansively upon the piston of the second,
+    etc., and thus derive an additional power to act either
+    alternately or co-jointly with that of the first cylinder.
+
+We have here, in all substantial respects, the modern engine of to-day.
+
+Two fine improvements have been made since Watt's time: first, the
+piston-rings of Cartwright, which effectively removed one of Watt's most
+serious difficulties, the escape of steam, even though the best packing
+he could devise were used--the chief reason he could not use
+high-pressure steam. In our day, the use of this is rapidly extending,
+as is that of superheated steam. Packing the piston was an elaborate
+operation even after Watt's day.
+
+It was not because Watt did not know as well as any of our present
+experts the advantages of high pressures, that he did not use them, but
+simply because of the mechanical difficulties then attending their
+adoption. He was always in advance of mechanical practicalities rather
+than behind, and as we have seen, had to retrace his steps, in the case
+of expansion.
+
+The other improvement is the cross-head of Haswell, an American, a
+decided advance, giving the piston rod a smooth and straight bed to rest
+upon and freeing it from all disturbance. The drop valve is now
+displacing the slide valve as a better form of excluding or admitting
+steam.
+
+Watt of course knew nothing of the thermo-dynamic value of high
+temperature without high pressure, altho fully conversant with the value
+of pressures. This had not been even imagined by either philosopher or
+engineer until discovered by Carnot as late as 1824. Even if he had
+known about it the mechanical arts in his day were in no condition to
+permit its use. Even high pressures were impracticable to any great
+extent. It is only during the past few years that turbines and
+superheating, having long been practically discarded, show encouraging
+signs of revival. They give great promise of advancement, the hitherto
+insuperable difficulties of lubrication and packing having been overcome
+within the last five years. Superheating especially promises to yield
+substantial results as compared with the practice with ordinary engines,
+but the margin of saving in steam over the best quadruple expansion
+engine cannot be great. Lord Kelvin however expects it to be the final
+contribution of science to the highest possible economy in the steam
+engine.
+
+In the January (1905) number of "Stevens Institute Indicator,"
+Professor Denton has an instructive resume of recent steam engine
+economics. He tells us that Steam Turbines are now being applied to
+Piston Engines to operate with the latter's exhaust, to effect the same
+saving as the sulphur dioxide cylinder; and adds
+
+    that the Turbine is a formidable competitor to the Piston Engine
+    is mainly due to the fact that it more completely realizes the
+    expansive principle enunciated in the infancy of steam history
+    as the fundamental factor of economy by its sagacious founder,
+    the immortal Watt.
+
+Watt's favorite employment in Soho works late in 1783 and early in 1784
+was to teach his engine, now become as docile as it was powerful, to
+work a tilt hammer. In 1777 he had written Boulton that
+
+    Wilkinson wants an engine to raise a stamp of 15 cwt. thirty or
+    forty times in a minute. I have set Webb to work to try it with
+    the little engine and a stamp-hammer of 60 lbs. weight. Many of
+    these _battering rams_ will be wanted if they answer.
+
+The trial was successful. A new machine to work a 700 lbs. hammer for
+Wilkinson was made, and April 27, 1783, Watt writes that
+
+    it makes from 15 to 50, and even 60, strokes per minute, and
+    works a hammer, raised two feet high, which has struck 300 blows
+    per minute.
+
+The engine was to work two hammers, but was capable of working four of 7
+cwt. each. He says, with excusable pride,
+
+    I believe it is a thing never done before, to make a hammer of
+    that weight make 300 blows per minute; and, in fact, it is more
+    a matter to brag of than for any other use, as the rate wanted
+    is from 90 to 100 blows, being as quick as the workmen can
+    manage the iron under it.
+
+This most ingenious application of steam power was included in Watt's
+next patent of April 28, 1784. It embraced many improvements, mostly,
+however, now of little consequence, the most celebrated being "parallel
+motion," of which Watt was prouder than any other of his triumphs. He
+writes to his son, November, 1808, twenty-four years after it was
+invented (1784):
+
+    Though I am not over anxious after fame, yet I am more proud of
+    the parallel motion than of any other mechanical invention I
+    have ever made.
+
+He wrote Boulton, in June, 1784:
+
+    I have started a new hare. I have got a glimpse of a method of
+    causing a piston-rod to move up and down perpendicularly, by
+    only fixing it to a piece of iron upon the beam ... I think it
+    one of the most ingenious simple pieces of mechanism I have
+    contrived.
+
+October, 1784, he writes:
+
+    The new central perpendicular motion answers beyond expectation,
+    and does not make the shadow of a noise.
+
+He says:
+
+    When I saw it in movement, it afforded me all the pleasure of a
+    novelty, as if I had been examining the invention of another.
+
+When beam-engines were universally used for pumping, this parallel
+motion was of great advantage. It has been superseded in our day, by
+improved piston guides and cross-heads, the construction of which in
+Watt's day was impossible, but no invention has commanded in greater
+degree the admiration of all who comprehend the principles upon which it
+acts, or who have witnessed the smoothness, orderly power and "sweet
+simplicity" of its movements. Watt's pride in it as his favorite
+invention in these respects is fully justified.
+
+A detailed specification for a road steam-carriage concludes the claims
+of this patent, but the idea of railroads, instead of common roads,
+coming later left the construction of the locomotive to Stephenson.[1]
+
+Watt's last patent bears date June 14, 1785, and was
+
+    for certain newly improved methods of constructing furnaces or
+    fire-places for heating, boiling, or evaporating of water and
+    other liquids which are applicable to steam engines and other
+    purposes, and also for heating, melting, and smelting of metals
+    and their ores, whereby greater effects are produced from the
+    fuel, and the smoke is in a great measure prevented or consumed.
+
+The principle, "an old one of my own," as Watt says, is in great part
+acted upon to-day.
+
+So numerous were the improvements made by Watt at various periods, which
+greatly increased the utility of his engine, it would be in vain to
+attempt a detailed recital of his endless contrivances, but we may
+mention as highly important, the throttle-valve, the governor, the
+steam-gauge and the indicator. Muirhead says:
+
+    The throttle-valve is worked directly by the engineer to start
+    or stop the engine, and also to regulate the supply of steam.
+    Watt describes it as a circular plate of metal, having a spindle
+    fixed across its diameter, the plate being accurately fitted to
+    an aperture in a metal ring of some thickness, through the
+    edgeway of which the spindle is fitted steam-tight, and the ring
+    fixed between the two flanches of the joint of the steam-pipe
+    which is next to the cylinder. One end of the spindle, which has
+    a square upon it, comes through the ring, and has a spanner
+    fixed upon it, by which it can be turned in either direction.
+    When the valve is parallel to the outsides of the ring, it shuts
+    the opening nearly perfectly; but when its plane lies at an
+    angle to the ring, it admits more or less steam according to the
+    degree it has opened; consequently the piston is acted upon with
+    more or less force.
+
+Papin preferred gunpowder as a safer source of power than steam, but
+that was before it had been automatically regulated by the "Governor."
+The governor has always been the writer's favorite invention, probably
+because it was the first he fully understood. It is an application of
+the centrifugal principle adapted and mechanically improved. Two heavy
+revolving balls swing round an upright rod. The faster the rod revolves
+the farther from it the balls swing out. The slower it turns the closer
+the balls fall toward it. By proper attachments the valve openings
+admitting steam are widened or narrowed accordingly. Thus the higher
+speed of the engine, the less steam admitted, the slower the speed the
+more steam admitted. Hence any uniform speed desired can be maintained:
+should the engine be called upon to perform greater service at one
+moment than another, as in the case of steel rolling mills, speed being
+checked when the piece of steel enters the rolls, immediately the valves
+widen, more steam rushes into the engine, and _vice versa_. Until the
+governor came regular motion was impossible--steam was an unruly steed.
+
+Arago describes the steam-gauge thus:
+
+    It is a short glass tube with its lower end immersed in a
+    cistern of mercury, which is placed within an iron box screwed
+    to the boiler steam-pipe, or to some other part communicating
+    freely with the steam, which, pressing on the surface of the
+    mercury in the cistern, raises the mercury in the tube (which is
+    open to the air at the upper end), and its altitude serves to
+    show the elastic power of the steam over that of the atmosphere.
+
+The indicator he thus describes:
+
+    The barometer being adapted only to ascertain the degree of
+    exhaustion in the condenser where its variations were small, the
+    vibrations of the mercury rendered it very difficult, if not
+    impracticable, to ascertain the state of the exhaustion of the
+    cylinder at the different periods of the stroke of the engine;
+    it became therefore necessary to contrive an instrument for that
+    purpose that should be less subject to vibration, and should
+    show nearly the degree of exhaustion in the cylinder at all
+    periods. The following instrument, called the Indicator, is
+    found to answer the end sufficiently. A cylinder about an inch
+    diameter, and six inches long, exceedingly truly bored, has a
+    solid piston accurately fitted to it, so as to slide easy by the
+    help of some oil; the stem of the piston is guided in the
+    direction of the axis of the cylinder, so that it may not be
+    subject to jam, or cause friction in any part of its motion. The
+    bottom of this cylinder has a cock and small pipe joined to it
+    which, having a conical end, may be inserted in a hole drilled
+    in the cylinder of the engine near one of the ends, so that, by
+    opening the small cock, a communication may be effected between
+    the inside of the cylinder and the indicator.
+
+    The cylinder of the indicator is fastened upon a wooden or
+    metal frame, more than twice its own length; one end of a spiral
+    steel spring, like that of a spring steel-yard, is attached to
+    the upper part of the frame, and the other end of the spring is
+    attached to the upper end of the piston-rod of the indicator.
+    The spring is made of such a strength, that when the cylinder of
+    the indicator is perfectly exhausted, the pressure of the
+    atmosphere may force its piston down within an inch of its
+    bottom. An index being fixed to the top of its piston-rod, the
+    point where it stands, when quite exhausted, is marked from an
+    observation of a barometer communicating with the same exhausted
+    vessel, and the scale divided accordingly.
+
+Improvements come in many ways, sometimes after much thought and after
+many experimental failures. Sometimes they flash upon clever inventors,
+but let us remember this is only after they have spent long years
+studying the problem. In the case of the steam engine, however, a quite
+important improvement came very curiously. Humphrey Potter was a lad
+employed to turn off and on the stop cocks of a Newcomen engine, a
+monotonous task, for, at every stroke one had to be turned to let steam
+into the boiler and another for injecting the cold water to condense it,
+and this had to be done at the right instant or the engine could not
+move. How to relieve himself from the drudgery became the question. He
+wished time to play with the other boys whose merriment was often heard
+at no great distance, and this set him thinking. Humphrey saw that the
+beam in its movements might serve to open and shut these stop cocks and
+he promptly began to attach cords to the cocks and then tied them at the
+proper points to the beam, so that ascending it pulled one cord and
+descending the other. Thus came to us perhaps not the first automatic
+device, but no doubt the first of its kind that was ever seen there. The
+steam engine henceforth was self-attending, providing itself for its own
+supply of steam and for its condensation with perfect regularity. It had
+become in this feature automatic.
+
+The cords of Potter gave place to vertical rods with small pegs which
+pressed upward or downward as desired. These have long since been
+replaced by other devices, but all are only simple modifications of a
+contrivance devised by the mere lad whose duty it was to turn the stop
+cocks.
+
+It would be interesting to know the kind of man this precocious boy
+inventor became, or whether he received suitable reward for his
+important improvement. We search in vain; no mention of him is to be
+found. Let us, however, do our best to repair the neglect and record
+that, in the history of the steam engine, Humphrey Potter must ever be
+honorably associated with famous men as the only famous boy inventor.
+
+In the development of the steam engine, we have one purely accidental
+discovery. In the early Newcomen engines, the head of the piston was
+covered by a sheet of water to fill the spaces between the circular
+contour of the movable piston and the internal surface of the cylinder,
+for there were no cylinder-boring tools in those days, and surfaces of
+cylinders were most irregular. To the surprise of the engineer, the
+engine began one day working at greatly increased speed, when it was
+found that the piston-head had been pierced by accident and that the
+cold water had passed in small drops into the cylinder and had condensed
+the steam, thus rapidly making a more perfect vacuum. From this
+accidental discovery came the improved plan of injecting a shower of
+cold water through the cylinder, the strokes of the engine being thus
+greatly increased.
+
+The year 1783 was one of Watt's most fruitful years of the dozen which
+may be said to have teemed with his inventions. His celebrated discovery
+of the composition of water was published in this year. The attempts
+made to deprive him of the honor of making this discovery ended in
+complete failure. Sir Humphrey Davy, Henry, Arago, Liebig, and many
+others of the highest authority acknowledged and established Watt's
+claims.
+
+The true greatness of the modest Watt was never more finely revealed
+than in his correspondence and papers published during the controversy.
+Watt wrote Dr. Black, April 21st, that he had handed his paper to Dr.
+Priestley to be read at the Royal Society. It contained the new idea of
+water, hitherto considered an element and now discovered to be a
+compound. Thus was announced one of the most wonderful discoveries found
+in the history of science. It was justly termed the beginning of a new
+era, the dawn of a new day in physical chemistry, indeed the real
+foundation for the new system of chemistry, and, according to Dr.
+Young, "a discovery perhaps of greater importance than any single fact
+which human ingenuity has ascertained either before or since." What
+Newton had done for light Watt was held to have done for water.
+Muirfield well says:
+
+    It is interesting in a high degree to remark that for him who
+    had so fully subdued to the use of man the gigantic power of
+    steam it was also reserved to unfold its compound natural and
+    elemental principles, as if on this subject there were to be
+    nothing which his researches did not touch, nothing which they
+    touched that they did not adorn.
+
+Arago says:
+
+    In his memoir of the month of April, Priestley added an
+    important circumstance to those resulting from the experiments
+    of his predecessors: he proved that the weight of the water
+    which is deposited upon the sides of the vessel, at the instant
+    of the detonation of the oxygen and hydrogen, is precisely the
+    same as the weights of the two gases.
+
+Watt, to whom Priestley communicated this important result, immediately
+perceived that proof was here afforded that water was not a simple body.
+Writing to his illustrious friend, he asks:
+
+    What are the products of your experiment? They are _water_,
+    _light_ and _heat_. Are we not, thence, authorised to conclude
+    that water is a compound of the two gases, oxygen and hydrogen,
+    deprived of a portion of their latent or elementary heat; that
+    oxygen is water deprived of its hydrogen, but still united to
+    its latent heat and light? If light be only a modification of
+    heat, or a simple circumstance of its manifestation, or a
+    component part of hydrogen, oxygen gas will be water deprived of
+    its hydrogen, but combined with latent heat.
+
+This passage, so clear, so precise, and logical, is taken from a letter
+of Watt's, dated April 26, 1783. The letter was communicated by
+Priestley to several of the scientific men in London, and was
+transmitted immediately afterward to Sir Joseph Banks, the President of
+the Royal Society, to be read at one of the meetings of that learned
+body.
+
+Watt had for many years entertained the opinion that air was a
+modification of water. He writes Boulton, December 10, 1782:
+
+    You may remember that I have often said, that if water could be
+    heated red-hot or something more, it would probably be converted
+    into some kind of air, because steam would in that case have
+    lost all its latent heat, and that it would have been turned
+    solely into sensible heat, and probably a total change of the
+    nature of the fluid would ensue.
+
+A month after he hears of Priestley's experiments, he writes Dr. Black
+(April 21, 1783) that he "believes he has found out the cause of the
+conversion of water into air." A few days later, he writes to Dr.
+Priestley:
+
+    In the deflagration of the inflammable and dephlogisticated
+    airs, the airs unite with violence--become red-hot--and, on
+    cooling, totally disappear. The only fixed matter which remains
+    is _water_; and _water_, _light_, and _heat_, are all the
+    products. Are we not then authorised to conclude that water is
+    composed of dephlogisticated and inflammable air, or phlogiston,
+    deprived of part of their latent heat; and that
+    dephlogisticated, or pure air, is composed of water deprived of
+    its phlogiston, and united to heat and light; and if light be
+    only a modification of heat, or a component part of phlogiston,
+    then pure air consists of water deprived of its phlogiston and
+    of latent heat?
+
+It appears from the letter to Dr. Black of April 21st, that Mr. Watt
+had, on that day, written his letter to Dr. Priestley, to be read by him
+to the Royal Society, but on the 26th he informs Mr. DeLuc, that having
+observed some inaccuracies of style in that letter, he had removed them,
+and would send the Doctor a corrected copy in a day or two, which he
+accordingly did on the 28th; the corrected letter (the same that was
+afterward embodied verbatim in the letter to Mr. DeLuc, printed in the
+Philosophical Transactions), being dated April 26th. In enclosing it,
+Mr. Watt adds, "As to myself, the more I consider what I have said, I am
+the more satisfied with it, as I find none of the facts repugnant."
+
+Thus was announced for the first time one of the most wonderful
+discoveries recorded in the history of science, startling in its novelty
+and yet so simple.
+
+Watt had divined the import of Priestley's experiment, for he had
+mastered all knowledge bearing upon the question, but even when this was
+communicated to Priestley, he could not accept it, and, after making new
+experiments, he writes Watt, April 29, 1783, "Behold with surprise and
+indignation the figure of an apparatus that has utterly ruined your
+beautiful hypothesis," giving a rough sketch with his pen of the
+apparatus employed. Mark the promptitude of the master who had
+deciphered the message which the experimenter himself could not
+translate. He immediately writes in reply May 2, 1783:
+
+    I deny that your experiment ruins my hypothesis. It is not
+    founded on so brittle a basis as an earthen retort, nor on _its_
+    converting water into air. I founded it on the other facts, and
+    was obliged to stretch it a good deal before it would fit this
+    experiment.... I maintain my hypothesis until it shall be shown
+    that the water formed after the explosion of the pure and
+    inflammable airs, has some other origin.
+
+He also writes to Mr. DeLuc on May 18th:
+
+    I do not see Dr. Priestley's experiment in the same light that
+    he does. It does not disprove my theory.... My assertion was
+    simply, that air (_i.e._, dephlogisticated air, or oxygen,
+    which was also commonly called vital air, pure air, or simple
+    _air_) was water deprived of its phlogiston, and united to heat,
+    which I grounded on the decomposition of air by inflammation
+    with inflammable air, the residuum, or product of which, is only
+    water and heat.
+
+Having, by experiments of his own, fully satisfied himself of the
+correctness of his theory, in November he prepared a full statement for
+the Royal Society, having asked the society to withhold his first paper
+until he could prove it for himself by experiment. He never doubted its
+correctness, but some members of the society advised that it had better
+be supported by facts.
+
+When the discovery was so daring that Priestley, who made the
+experiments, could not believe it and had to be convinced by Watt of its
+correctness, there seems little room left for other claimants, nor for
+doubt as to whom is due the credit of the revelation.
+
+Watt encountered the difficulties of different weights and measures in
+his studies of foreign writers upon chemistry, a serious inconvenience
+which still remains with us.
+
+He wrote Mr. Kirwan, November, 1783:
+
+    I had a great deal of trouble in reducing the weights and
+    measures to speak the same language; and many of the German
+    experiments become still more difficult from their using
+    different weights and different divisions of them in different
+    parts of that empire. It is therefore a very desirable thing to
+    have these difficulties removed, and to get all philosophers to
+    use pounds divided in the same manner, and I flatter myself that
+    may be accomplished if you, Dr. Priestley, and a few of the
+    French experimenters will agree to it; for the utility is so
+    evident, that every thinking person must immediately be
+    convinced of it.
+
+Here follows his plan: Let the
+
+    Philosophical pound consist of 10 ounces, or 10,000 grains.
+              the ounce    "    "  10 drachms or 1,000    "
+              the drachm   "    "  100 grains.
+
+    Let all elastic fluids be measured by the ounce measure of
+    water, by which the valuation of different cubic inches will be
+    avoided, and the common decimal tables of specific gravities
+    will immediately give the weights of those elastic fluids.
+
+    If all philosophers cannot agree on one pound or one grain, let
+    every one take his own pound or his own grain; it will affect
+    nothing but doses of medicines, which must be corrected as is
+    now done; but as it would be much better that the identical
+    pound was used by all. I would propose that the Amsterdam or
+    Paris pound be assumed as the standard, being now the most
+    universal in Europe: it is to our avoirdupois pound as 109 is to
+    100. Our avoirdupois pound contains 7,000 of our grains, and the
+    Paris pound 7,630 of our grains, but it contains 9,376 Paris
+    grains, so that the division into 10,000 would very little
+    affect the Paris grain. I prefer dividing the pound afresh to
+    beginning with the Paris grain, because I believe the pound is
+    very general, but the grain local.
+
+    Dr. Priestley has agreed to this proposal, and has referred it
+    to you to fix upon the pound if you otherwise approve of it. I
+    shall be happy to have your opinion of it as soon as convenient,
+    and to concert with you the means of making it universal.... I
+    have some hopes that the foot may be fixed by the pendulum and a
+    measure of water, and a pound derived from that; but in the
+    interim let us at least assume a proper division, which from the
+    nature of it must be intelligible as long as decimal arithmetic
+    is used.
+
+He afterward wrote, in a letter to Magellan:
+
+    As to the precise foot or pound, I do not look upon it to be
+    very material, in chemistry at least. Either the common English
+    foot may be adopted according to your proposal, which has the
+    advantage that a cubic foot is exactly 1,000 ounces,
+    consequently the present foot and ounce would be retained; or a
+    pendulum which vibrates 100 times a minute may be adopted for
+    the standard, which would make the foot 14.2 of our present
+    inches, and the cubic foot would be very exactly a bushel, and
+    would weigh 101 of the present pounds, so that the present pound
+    would not be much altered. But I think that by this scheme the
+    foot would be too large, and that the inconvenience of changing
+    all the foot measures and things depending on them, would be
+    much greater than changing all the pounds, bushels, gallons,
+    etc. I therefore give the preference to those plans which retain
+    the foot and ounce.
+
+The war of the standards still rages--metric, or decimal, or no change.
+What each nation has is good enough for it in the opinion of many of its
+people. Some day an international commission will doubtless assemble to
+bring order out of chaos. As far as the English-speaking race is
+concerned, it seems that a decided improvement could readily be
+affected with very trifling, indeed scarcely perceptible, changes.
+Especially is this so with money values. Britain could merge her system
+with those of Canada and America, by simply making her "pound" the exact
+value of the American five dollars, it being now only ten pence less;
+her silver coinage one and two shillings equal to quarter- and
+half-dollars, the present coin to be recoined upon presentation, but
+meanwhile to pass current. Weights and measures are more difficult to
+assimilate. Science being world-wide, and knowing no divisions, should
+use uniform terms. Alas! at the distance of nearly a century and a half
+we seem no nearer the prospect of a system of universal weights and
+measures than in Watt's day, but Watt's idea is not to be lost sight of
+for all that. He was a seer who often saw what was to come.
+
+We have referred to the absence of holidays in Watt's strenuous life,
+but Birmingham was remarkable for a number of choice spirits who formed
+the celebrated Lunar Society, whose members were all devoted to the
+pursuit of knowledge and mutually agreeable to one another. Besides Watt
+and Boulton, there were Dr. Priestley, discoverer of oxygen gas, Dr.
+Darwin, Dr. Withering, Mr. Keir, Mr. Galton, Mr. Wedgwood of Wedgwood
+ware fame, who had monthly dinners at their respective houses--hence the
+"Lunar" Society. Dr. Priestley, discoverer of oxygen, who arrived in
+Birmingham in 1780, has repeatedly mentioned the great pleasure he had
+in having Watt for a neighbor. He says:
+
+    I consider my settlement at Birmingham as the happiest event in
+    my life; being highly favourable to every object I had in view,
+    philosophical or theological. In the former respect I had the
+    convenience of good workmen of every kind, and the society of
+    persons eminent for their knowledge of chemistry; particularly
+    Mr. Watt, Mr. Keir, and Dr. Withering. These, with Mr. Boulton
+    and Dr. Darwin, who soon left us by removing from Lichfield to
+    Derby, Mr. Galton, and afterwards Mr. Johnson of Kenilworth and
+    myself, dined together every month, calling ourselves _the Lunar
+    Society_, because the time of our meeting was near the
+    full-moon--in order,
+
+as he elsewhere says,
+
+    to have the benefit of its light in returning home.
+
+Richard Lovell Edgeworth says of this distinguished coterie:
+
+    By means of Mr. Keir, I became acquainted with Dr. Small of
+    Birmingham, a man esteemed by all who knew him, and by all who
+    were admitted to his friendship beloved with no common
+    enthusiasm. Dr. Small formed a link which combined Mr. Boulton,
+    Mr. Watt, Dr. Darwin, Mr. Wedgwood, Mr. Day, and myself
+    together--men of very different characters, but all devoted to
+    literature and science. This mutual intimacy has never been
+    broken but by death, nor have any of the number failed to
+    distinguish themselves in science or literature. Some may think
+    that I ought with due modesty to except myself. Mr. Keir, with
+    his knowledge of the world and good sense; Dr. Small, with his
+    benevolence and profound sagacity; Wedgwood, with his increasing
+    industry, experimental variety, and calm investigation; Boulton,
+    with his mobility, quick perception, and bold adventure; Watt,
+    with his strong inventive faculty, undeviating steadiness, and
+    bold resources; Darwin, with his imagination, science, and
+    poetical excellence; and Day with his unwearied research after
+    truth, his integrity and eloquence proved altogether such a
+    society as few men have had the good fortune to live with; such
+    an assemblage of friends, as fewer still have had the happiness
+    to possess, and keep through life.
+
+The society continued to exist until the beginning of the century, 1800.
+Watt was the last surviving member. The last reference is Dr.
+Priestley's dedication to it, in 1793, of one of his works "Experiments
+on the Generation of Air from Water," in which he says:
+
+    There are few things that I more regret, in consequence of my
+    removal from Birmingham, than the loss of your society. It both
+    encouraged and enlightened me; so that what I did there of a
+    philosophical kind ought in justice to be attributed almost as
+    much to you as to myself. From our cheerful meetings I never
+    absented myself voluntarily, and from my pleasing recollection
+    they will never be absent. Should the cause of our separation
+    make it necessary for to me remove to a still greater distance
+    from you, I shall only think the more, and with the more regret,
+    of our past interviews.... Philosophy engrossed us wholly.
+    Politicians may think there are no objects of any consequence
+    besides those which immediately interest _them_. But objects far
+    superior to any of which they have an idea engaged our
+    attention, and the discussion of them was accompanied with a
+    satisfaction to which they are strangers. Happy would it be for
+    the world if their pursuits were as tranquil, and their projects
+    as innocent, and as friendly to the best interests of mankind,
+    as ours.
+
+That the partners, Boulton and Watt, had such pleasure amid their lives
+of daily cares, all will be glad to know. It was not all humdrum
+money-making nor intense inventing. There was the society of gifted
+minds, the serene atmosphere of friendship in the high realms of mutual
+regard, best recreation of all.
+
+In 1786, quite a break in their daily routine took place. In that year
+Messrs. Boulton and Watt visited Paris to meet proposals for their
+erecting steam engines in France under an exclusive privilege. They were
+also to suggest improvements on the great hydraulic machine of Marly.
+Before starting, the sagacious and patriotic Watt wrote to Boulton:
+
+    I think if either of us go to France, we should first wait upon
+    Mr. Pitt (prime minister), and let him know our errand thither,
+    that the tongue of slander may be silenced, all undue suspicion
+    removed, and ourselves rendered more valuable in his eyes,
+    because others desire to have us!
+
+They had a flattering reception in Paris from the ministry, who seemed
+desirous that they should establish engine-works in France. This they
+absolutely refused to do, as being contrary to the interests of their
+country. It may be feared we are not quite so scrupulous in our day. On
+the other hand, refusal now would be fruitless, it has become so easy to
+obtain plans, and even experts, to build machines for any kind of
+product in any country. Automatic machinery has almost dispelled the
+need for so-called skilled labor. East Indians, Mexicans, Japanese,
+Chinese, all become more or less efficient workers with a few month's
+experience. Manufacturing is therefore to spread rapidly throughout the
+world. All nations may be trusted to develop, and if necessary for a
+time protect, their natural resources as a patriotic duty. Only when
+prolonged trials have been made can it be determined which nation can
+best and most cheaply provide the articles for which raw material
+abounds.
+
+The visit to Paris enabled Watt and Boulton to make the acquaintance of
+the most eminent men of science, with whom they exchanged ideas
+afterward in frequent and friendly correspondence. Watt described
+himself as being, upon one occasion, "drunk from morning to night with
+Burgundy and undeserved praise." The latter was always a disconcerting
+draught for our subject; anything but reference to his achievements for
+the modest self-effacing genius.
+
+While in Paris, Berthollet told Watt of his new method of bleaching by
+chlorine, and gave him permission to communicate it to his
+father-in-law, who adopted it in his business, together with several
+improvements of Watt's invention, the results of a long series of
+experiments. Watt, writing to Mr. Macgregor, April 27, 1787, says:
+
+    In relation to the inventor, he is a man of science, a member of
+    the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and a physician, not very
+    rich, a very modest and worthy man, and an excellent chemist. My
+    sole motives in meddling with it were to procure such reward as
+    I could to a man of merit who had made an extensively useful
+    discovery in the arts, and secondly, I had an immediate view to
+    your interest; as to myself, I had no lucrative views
+    whatsoever, it being a thing out of my way, which both my
+    business and my health prevented me from pursuing further than
+    it might serve for amusement when unfit for more serious
+    business. Lately, by a letter from the inventor, he informs me
+    that he gives up all intentions of pursuing it with lucrative
+    views, as he says he will not compromise his quiet and happiness
+    by engaging in business; in which, perhaps, he is right; but
+    if the discovery has real merit, as I apprehend, he is certainly
+    entitled to a generous reward, which I would wish for the honour
+    of Britain, to procure for him; but I much fear, in the way you
+    state it, that nothing could be got worth his acceptance.
+
+France has been distinguished for men of science who have thus refrained
+from profiting by their inventions. Pasteur, in our day, perhaps the
+most famous of all, the liver, not only of the simple but of the ideal
+life, laboring for the good of humanity--service to man--and taking for
+himself the simple life, free from luxury, palace, estate, and all the
+inevitable cares accompanying ostentatious living. Berthollet preceded
+him. Like Agassiz, these gifted souls were "too busy to make money."
+
+In 1792, when Boulton had passed the allotted three score years and ten,
+and Watt was over three score, they made a momentous decision which
+brought upon them several years of deep anxiety. Fortunately the sons of
+the veterans who had recently been admitted to the business proved of
+great service in managing the affair, and relieved their parents of much
+labor and many journeys. Fortunate indeed were Watt and Boulton in their
+partnership, for they became friends first and partners afterward. They
+were not less fortunate in each having a talented son, who also became
+friends and partners like their fathers before them. The decision was
+that the infringers of their patents were to be proceeded against.
+They had to appeal to the law to protect their rights.
+
+Watt met the apparently inevitable fate of inventors. Rivals arose in
+various quarters to dispute his right to rank as the originator of many
+improvements. No reflection need be made upon most rival claimants to
+inventions. Some wonderful result is conceived to be within the range of
+possibility, which, being obtained, will revolutionise existing modes. A
+score of inventive minds are studying the problem throughout the
+civilised world. Every day or two some new idea flashes upon one of them
+and vanishes, or is discarded after trial. One day the announcement
+comes of triumphant success with the very same idea slightly modified,
+the modification or addition, slight though this may be, making all the
+difference between failure and success. The man has arrived with the key
+that opens the door of the treasure-house. He sets the egg on end
+perhaps by as obvious a plan as chipping the end. There arises a chorus
+of strenuous claimants, each of whom had thought of that very device
+long ago. No doubt they did. They are honest in their protests and quite
+persuaded in their own minds that they, and not the Watt of the
+occasion, are entitled to the honor of original discovery. This very
+morning we read in the press a letter from the son of Morse, vindicating
+his father's right to rank as the father of the telegraph, a son of
+Vail, one of his collaborators, having claimed that his father, and
+not Morse, was the real inventor. The most august of all bodies of men,
+since its decisions overrule both Congress and President, the Supreme
+Court of the United States, has shown rare wisdom from its inception,
+and in no department more clearly than in that regarding the rights of
+inventors. No court has had such experience with patent claims, for no
+nation has a tithe of the number to deal with. Throughout its history,
+the court has attached more and more importance to two points: First, is
+the invention valuable? Second, who proved this in actual practice?
+These points largely govern its decisions.
+
+The law expenses of their suits seemed to Boulton and Watt exorbitant,
+even in that age of low prices compared to our own. One solicitors bill
+was for no less than $30,000, which caused Watt years afterward, when
+speaking of an enormous charge to say that "it would not have disgraced
+a London solicitor." When we find however, that this was for four years'
+services, the London solicitor appears in a different light. "In the
+whole affair," writes Watt to his friend Dr. Black, January 15, 1797,
+"nothing was so grateful to me as the zeal of our friends and the
+activity of our young men, which were unremitting."
+
+The first trial ended June 22, 1793, with a verdict for Watt and Boulton
+by the jury, subject to the opinion of the court as to the validity of
+the patent. On May 16, 1795, the case came on for judgment, when
+unfortunately the court was found divided, two for the patent and two
+against. Another case was tried December 16, 1796, with a special jury,
+before Lord Chief Justice Eyre; the verdict was again for the
+plaintiffs. Proceedings on a writ of error had the effect of affirming
+the result by the unanimous opinion of the four judges, before whom it
+was ably and fully argued on two occasions.
+
+The testimony of Professor Robison, Watt's intimate friend of youth in
+Glasgow, was understood to have been deeply impressive, and to have had
+a decisive effect upon judges and jury.
+
+All the claims of Watt were thus triumphantly sustained. The decision
+has always been considered of commanding importance to the law of
+patents in Britain, and was of vast consequence to the firm of Watt and
+Boulton pecuniarily. Heavy damages and costs were due from the actual
+defendants, and the large number of other infringers were also liable
+for damages. As was to have been expected, however, the firm remembered
+that to be merciful in the hour of victory and not to punish too hard a
+fallen foe, was a cardinal virtue. The settlements they made were
+considered most liberal and satisfactory to all. Watt used frequently
+long afterward to refer to his specifications as his old and well-tried
+friends. So indeed they proved, and many references to their wonderful
+efficiency were made.
+
+With the beginning of the new century, 1800, the original partnership of
+the famous firm of Boulton and Watt expired, after a term of twenty-five
+years, as did the patents of 1769 and 1775. The term of partnership had
+been fixed with reference to the duration of the patents. Young men in
+their prime, Watt at forty and Boulton about fifty when they joined
+hands, after a quarter-century of unceasing and anxious labor, were
+disposed to resign the cares and troubles of business to their sons. The
+partnership therefore was not renewed by them, but their respective
+shares in the firm were agreed upon as the basis of a new partnership
+between their sons, James Watt, Jr., Matthew Robinson Boulton and
+Gregory Watt, all distinguished for abilities of no mean order, and in a
+great degree already conversant with the business, which their wise
+fathers had seen fit for some years to entrust more and more to them.
+
+In nothing done by either of these two wise fathers is more wisdom shown
+than in their sagacious, farseeing policy in regard to their sons. As
+they themselves had been taught to concentrate their energies upon
+useful occupation, for which society would pay as for value received,
+they had doubtless often conferred, and concluded that was the happiest
+and best life for their sons, instead of allowing them to fritter away
+the precious years of youth in aimless frivolity, to be followed in
+later years by a disappointing and humiliating old age.
+
+So the partnership of Boulton and Watt was renewed in the union of the
+sons. Gregory Watt's premature death four years later was such a blow to
+his father that some think he never was quite himself again. Gregory had
+displayed brilliant talents in the higher pursuits of science and
+literature, in which he took delight, and great things had been
+predicted from him. With the other two sons the business connection
+continued without change for forty years, until, when old men, they also
+retired like their fathers. They proved to be great managers, for
+notwithstanding the cessation of the patents which opened
+engine-building free to all, the business of the firm increased and
+became much more profitable than it had ever been before; indeed toward
+the close of the original partnership, and upon the triumph gained in
+the patent suits, the enterprise became so profitable as fully to
+satisfy the moderate desire of Watt, and to provide a sure source of
+income for his sons. This met all his wishes and removed the fears of
+becoming dependent that had so long haunted him.
+
+The continued and increasing success of the Soho works was obviously
+owing to the new partners. They had some excellent assistants, but in
+the foremost place among all of them stands Murdoch, Watt's able,
+faithful and esteemed assistant for many years, who, both
+intellectually and in manly independence, was considered to exhibit no
+small resemblance to his revered master and friend. Never formally a
+partner in Soho (for he declined partnership as we have seen), he was
+placed on the footing of a partner by the sons in 1810, without risk,
+and received $5,000 per annum. From 1830 he lived in peaceful retirement
+and passed away in 1839. His remains were deposited in Handsworth Church
+near those of his friends and employers, Watt and Boulton (the one spot
+on earth he could have most desired). "A bust by Chantrey serves to
+perpetuate the remembrance of his manly and intelligent features, and of
+the mind of which these were a pleasing index." We may imagine the
+shades of Watt and Boulton, those friends so appropriately laid
+together, greeting their friend and employee: "Well done, thou good and
+faithful servant!" If ever there was one, Murdoch was the man, and
+Captain Jones his fellow.
+
+We have referred to Watt's suggestion of the screw-propeller, and of the
+sketch of it sent to Dr. Small, September 30, 1770. The only record of
+any earlier suggestion of steam is that of Jonathan Hulls, in 1736, and
+which he set forth in a pamphlet entitled "A Description and Draught of
+a Newly Invented Machine for carrying vessels or ships out of or into
+any Harbour, Port or River, against Wind or Tide or in a Calm"; London,
+1737. He described a large barge equipped with a Newcomen engine to be
+employed as a tug, fitted with fan (or paddle) wheels, towing a ship
+of war, but nothing further appears to have been done. Writing on this
+subject, Mr. Williamson says:
+
+    During his last visit to Greenock in 1816, Mr. Watt, in company
+    with his friend, Mr. Walkinshaw--whom the author some years
+    afterward heard relate the circumstance--made a voyage in a
+    steamboat as far as Rothsay and back to Greenock--an excursion,
+    which, in those days, occupied a greater portion of a whole day.
+    Mr. Watt entered into conversation with the engineer of the
+    boat, pointing out to him the method of "backing" the engine.
+    With a footrule he demonstrated to him what was meant. Not
+    succeeding, however, he at last, under the impulse of the ruling
+    passion, threw off his overcoat, and, putting his hand to the
+    engine himself, showed the practical application of his lecture.
+    Previously to this, the "back-stroke" of the steamboat engine
+    was either unknown, or not generally known. The practice was to
+    stop the engine entirely a considerable time before the vessel
+    reached the point of mooring, in order to allow for the gradual
+    and natural diminution of her speed.
+
+The naval review at Spithead, upon the close of the Crimean war in 1856,
+was the greatest up to that time. Ten vessels out of two hundred and
+fifty still had not steam power, but almost all the others were
+propelled by the screw--the spiral oar of Watt's letter of 1770--a
+red-letter day for the inventor.
+
+Watt's early interest in locomotive steam-carriages, dating from
+Robison's having thrown out the idea to him, was never lost. On August
+12, 1768, Dr. Small writes Watt, referring to the "peculiar improvements
+in them" the latter had made previous to that date. Seven months later
+he apprises Watt that "a patent for moving wheel-carriages by steam has
+been taken out by one Moore," adding "this comes of thy delays; do come
+to England with all possible speed." Watt replied "If linen-draper Moore
+does not use my engine to drive his chaises he can't drive them by
+steam." Here Watt hit the nail on the head; as with the steamship, so
+with the locomotive, his steam-engine was the indispensable power. In
+1786 he states that he has a carriage model of some size in hand "and am
+resolved to try if God will work a miracle in favor of these carriages."
+Watt's doubt was based on the fact that they would take twenty pounds of
+coal and two cubic feet of water per horse-power on the common roads.
+
+Another of Watt's recreations in his days of semi-retirement was the
+improvement of lamps. He wrote the famous inventor of the Argand burner
+fully upon the subject in August, 1787, and constructed some lamps which
+proved great successes.
+
+The following year he invented an instrument for determining the
+specific gravities of liquids, which was generally adopted.
+
+One of Watt's inventions was a new method of readily measuring distances
+by telescope, which he used in making his various surveys for canals.
+Such instruments are in general use to-day. Brough's treatise on
+"Mining" (10th ed., p. 228) gives a very complete account of them, and
+states that "the original instrument of this class is that invented by
+James Watt in 1771."
+
+In his leisure hours, Watt invented an ingenious machine for drawing in
+perspective, using the double parallel ruler, then very little known and
+not at all used as far as Watt knew. Watt reports having made from fifty
+to eighty of these machines, which went to various parts of the world.
+
+In 1810 Watt informs Berthollet that for several years he had felt
+unable, owing to the state of his health, to make chemical experiments.
+But idle he could not be; he must be at work upon something. As he often
+said, "without a hobby-horse, what is life?" So the saying is reported,
+but we may conclude that the "horse" is here an interpolation, for the
+difference between "a horse" and "a hobby" is radical--a man can get off
+a horse.
+
+Watt's next "hobby" fortunately became an engrossing occupation and kept
+him alert. This was a machine for copying sculpture. A machine he had
+seen in Paris for tracing and multiplying the dies of medals, suggested
+the other. After much labor and many experiments he did get some measure
+of success, and made a large head of Locke in yellow wood, and a small
+head of his friend Adam Smith.
+
+Long did Watt toil at the new hobby in the garret where it had been
+created, but the garret proved too hot in summer and too cold in
+winter. March 14, 1810, he writes Berthollet and Leveque:
+
+    I still do a little in mechanics: a part of which, if I live to
+    complete it, I shall have the honor of communicating to my
+    friends in France.
+
+He went steadily forward and succeeded in making some fine copies in
+1814. For one of Sappho he gives dates and the hours required for
+various parts, making a total of thirty-nine. Some censorious
+Sabbatarians discovered that the day he was employed one hour "doing her
+breast with 1/8th drill" was Sabbath, which in one who belonged to a
+strict Scottish Covenanter family, betokened a sad fall from grace. When
+we consider that his health was then precarious, that he was debarred
+from chemical experiments, and depended solely upon mechanical subjects;
+that in all probability it was a stormy day (Sunday, February 3, 1811),
+knowing also that "Satan finds mischief still for idle hands to do," we
+hope our readers will pardon him for yielding to the irresistible
+temptation, even if on the holy Sabbath day for once he could not "get
+off" his captivating hobby.
+
+The historical last workshop of the great worker with all its contents
+remains open to the public to-day just as it was when he passed away.
+Pilgrims from many lands visit it, as Shakespeare's birthplace, Burns'
+cottage, and Scott's Abbottsford attract their many thousands yearly. We
+recommend our readers to add to these this garret of Watt in their
+pilgrimages.
+
+[1] Sinclair's "Development of the Locomotive" tends to deprive
+Stephenson of some part of his fame as inventor. Much importance is
+attached to Hedley's "Puffing Billy," 1813, which is pronounced to have
+been a commercial success. Sinclair, however, credits Stephenson with
+doing most of all men to introduce the Locomotive. As the final verdict
+may admit Hedley and cannot expel Stephenson from the temple of fame, we
+pass the sentence as written, leaving to future disputants to adjust
+rival claims.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE RECORD OF THE STEAM ENGINE
+
+
+The Soho works, up to January, 1824, had completed 1164 steam engines,
+of a nominal horse-power of 25,945; from January, 1824, to 1854, 441
+engines, nominal horse-power, 25,278, making the total number 1605, of
+nominal horse-power, 51,223, and real horse-power, 167,319. Mulhall
+gives the total steam-power of the world as 50,150,000 horse-power in
+1888. In 1880 it was only 34,150,000. Thus in eight years it increased,
+say, fifty per cent. Assuming the same rate of increase from 1888 to
+1905, a similar period, it is to-day 75,000,000 nominal, which Engel
+says may be taken as one-half the effective power (vide Mulhall,
+"Steam," p. 546), the real horse-power in 1905 being 150,000,000. One
+horse-power raises ten tons a height of twelve inches per minute.
+Working eight hours, this is about 5,000 tons daily, or twelve times a
+man's work, and as the engine never tires, and can be run constantly, it
+follows that each horse-power it can exert equals thirty-six men's work;
+but, allowing for stoppages, let us say thirty men. The engines of a
+large ocean greyhound of 35,000 horse-power, running constantly from
+port to port, equal to three relays of twelve men per horse-power, is
+daily exerting the power of 1,260,000 men, or 105,000 horses. Assuming
+that all the steam engines in the world upon the average work double the
+hours of men, then the 150,000,000 horse-power in the world, each equal
+to two relays of twelve men per horse-power, exerts the power of
+3,600,000,000 of men. There are only one-tenth as many male adults in
+the world, estimating one in five of the population.
+
+If we assume that all steam engines work an average of only eight hours
+in the twenty-four, as men and horses do (those on duty longer hours are
+not under continuous exertion), it still follows that the 150,000,000 of
+effective steam-power, each doing the work of twelve men, equals the
+work of 1,800,000,000 of men, or of 150,000,000 of horses.
+
+Engel estimated that in 1880 the value of world industries dependent
+upon steam was thirty-two thousand millions of dollars, and that in 1888
+it had reached forty-three thousand millions of dollars. It is to-day
+doubtless more than sixty thousand millions of dollars, a great increase
+no doubt over 1880, but the one figure is as astounding as the other,
+for both mean nothing that can be grasped.
+
+The chief steam-using countries are America, 14,400,000 horse-power in
+1888; Britain, 9,200,000 horse-power nominal. If we add the British
+colonies and dependencies, 7,120,000 horse-power, the English-speaking
+race had three-fifths of all the steam-power of the world.
+
+In 1840 Britain had only 620,000 horse-power nominal; the United States
+760,000; the whole world had only 1,650,000 horse-power. To-day it has
+75,000,000 nominal. So rapidly has steam extended its sway over most of
+the earth in less than the span of a man's life. There has never been
+any development in the world's history comparable to this, nor can we
+imagine that such a rapid transformation can ever come in the future.
+What the future is finally to bring forth even imagination is unable to
+conceive. No bounds can be set to its forthcoming possible, even
+probable, wonders, but as such a revolution as steam has brought must
+come from a superior force capable of displacing steam, this would
+necessarily be a much longer task than steam had in occupying an
+entirely new field without a rival.
+
+The contrast between Newcomen and Watt is interesting. The Newcomen
+engine consumed twenty-eight pounds of coal per horse-power and made not
+exceeding three to four strokes per minute, the piston moving about
+fifty feet per minute. To-day, steam marine engines on one and one-third
+pounds of coal per horse-power--the monster ships using less--make
+from seventy to ninety revolutions per minute. "Destroyers" reach 400
+per minute. Small steam engines, it is stated, have attained 600
+revolutions per minute. The piston to-day is supposed to travel
+moderately when at 1,000 feet per minute, in a cylinder three feet long.
+This gives 166 revolutions per minute. With coal under the boilers
+costing one dollar per net ton, from say five pounds of coal for one
+cent there is one horse-power for three hours, or a day and a night of
+continuous running for eight cents.
+
+Countless millions of men and of horses would be useless for the work of
+the steam-engine, for the seemingly miraculous quality steam possesses,
+that permits concentration, is as requisite as its expansive powers. One
+hundred thousand horse-power, or several hundred thousand horse-power,
+is placed under one roof and directed to the task required. Sixty-four
+thousand horse-power is concentrated in the hold of the great steamships
+now building. All this stupendous force is evolved, concentrated and
+regulated by science from the most unpromising of substances, cold
+water. Nothing man has discovered or imagined is to be named with the
+steam engine. It has no fellow. Franklin capturing the lightning, Morse
+annihilating space with the telegraph, Bell transmitting speech through
+the air by the telephone, are not less mysterious--being more ethereal,
+perhaps in one sense they are even more so--still, the labor of the
+world performed by heating cold water places Watt and his steam engine
+in a class apart by itself. Many are the inventions for applying power;
+his creates the power it applies.
+
+Whether the steam engine has reached its climax, and gas, oil, or other
+agents are to be used extensively for power, in the near future, is a
+question now debated in scientific circles. Much progress has been made
+in using these substitutes, and more is probable, as one obstacle after
+another is overcome. Gas especially is coming forward, and oil is freely
+used. For reasons before stated, it seems to the writer that, where coal
+is plentiful, the day is distant when steam will not continue to be the
+principal source of power. It will be a world surpriser that beats one
+horse-power developed by one pound of coal. The power to do much more
+than this, however, lies theoretically in gas, but there come these wise
+words of Arago to mind: "Persons whose whole lives have been devoted to
+speculative labours are not aware how great the distance is between a
+scheme, apparently the best concerted, and its realisation." So true!
+Watt's ideas in the brain, and the steam engine that he had to evolve
+during nine long years, are somewhat akin to the great gulf between
+resolve and performance, the "good resolution" that soothes and the
+"act" that exalts.
+
+The steam engine is Scotland's chief, tho not her only contribution to
+the material progress of the world. Watt was its inventor, we might
+almost write Creator, so multiform were the successive steps. Symington
+by the steamship stretched one arm of it over the water; Stephenson by
+the locomotive stretched the other over the land. Thus was the world
+brought under its sway and conditions of human life transformed. Watt
+and Symington were born in Scotland within a few miles of each other.
+Stephenson's forbears moved from Scotland south of the line previous to
+his birth, as Fulton's parents removed from Scotland to America, so that
+both Stephenson and Fulton could boast with Gladstone that the blood in
+their veins was Scotch.
+
+The history of the world has no parallel to the change effected by the
+inventions of these three men. Strange that little Scotland, with only
+1,500,000 people, in 1791, about one-half the population of New York
+City, should have been the mother of such a triad, and that her second
+"mighty three" (Wallace, Bruce and Burns always first), should have been
+of the same generation, working upon the earth near each other at the
+same time. The Watt engine appeared in 1782; the steamship in 1801; the
+locomotive thirteen years later, in 1814. Thus thirty-two years after
+its appearance Watt's steam-engine had conquered both sea and land.
+
+The sociologist may theorise, but plain people will remember that men do
+not gather grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles. There must be
+something in the soil which produces such men; something in the poverty
+that compels exertion; something in the "land of the mountain and the
+flood" that stirs the imagination; something in the history of centuries
+of struggle for national and spiritual independence; much in the
+system of compulsory and universal free education; something of all
+these elements mingling in the blood that tells, and enables Scotland to
+contribute so largely to the progress of the world.
+
+Strange reticence is shown by all Watt's historians regarding his
+religious and political views. Williamson, the earliest author of his
+memoirs, is full of interesting facts obtained from people in Greenock
+who had known Watt well. The hesitation shown by him as to Watt's
+orthodoxy in his otherwise highly eulogistic tribute, attracts
+attention. He says:
+
+    We could desire to know more of the state of those affections
+    which are more purely spiritual by their nature and origin--his
+    disposition to those supreme truths of Revelation, which alone
+    really elevate and purify the soul. In the absence of much
+    information of a very positive kind in regard to such points of
+    character and life, we instinctively revert in a case like this
+    to the principles and maxims of an infantile and early training.
+    Remembering the piety portrayed in the ancestors of this great
+    man, one cannot but cling to the hope that his many virtues
+    reposed on a substratum of more than merely moral excellence.
+    Let us cherish the hope that the calm which rested on the spirit
+    of the pilgrim ... was one that caught its radiance from a far
+    higher sphere than that of the purest human philosophy.
+
+Watt's breaking of the Sabbath before recorded must have seemed to that
+stern Calvinist a heinous sin, justifying grave doubts of Watt's
+spiritual condition, his "moral excellence" to the contrary
+notwithstanding. Williamson's estimate of moral excellence had recently
+been described by Burns:
+
+    But then, nae thanks to him for a' that,
+    Nae godly symptom ye can ca' that,
+    It's naething but a milder feature
+    Of our poor sinfu' corrupt nature.
+    Ye'll get the best o' moral works,
+    Many black gentoos and pagan works,
+    Or hunters wild on Ponotaxi
+    Wha never heard of orthodoxy.
+
+Williamson's doubts had much stronger foundation in Watt's
+non-attendance at church, for, as we shall see from his letter to DeLuc,
+July, 1788, he had never attended the "meeting-house" (dissenting
+church) in Birmingham altho he claimed to be still a member of the
+Presbyterian body in declining the sheriffalty.
+
+It seems probable that Watt, in his theological views, like Priestley
+and others of the Lunar Society, was in advance of his age, and more or
+less in accord with Burns, who was then astonishing his countrymen.
+Perhaps he had forstalled Dean Stanley's advice in his rectorial address
+to the students of St. Andrew's University: "go to Burns for your
+theology," yet he remained a deeply religious man to the end, as we see
+from his letter (page 216), at the age of seventy-six.
+
+We know that politically Watt was in advance of his times for the prime
+minister pronounced him "a sad radical." He was with Burns politically
+at all events. Watt's eldest son, then in Paris, was carried away by the
+French Revolution, and Muirhead suggests that the prime minister must
+have confounded father and son, but it seems unreasonable to suppose
+that he could have been so misled as to mistake the doings of the famous
+Watt in Birmingham for those of his impulsive son in France.
+
+The French Revolution exerted a powerful influence in Britain,
+especially in the north of England and south of Scotland, which have
+much in common. The Lunar Society of Birmingham was intensely
+interested. At one of the meetings in the summer of 1788, held at her
+father's house, Mrs. Schimmelpenniack records that Mr. Boulton presented
+to the company his son, just returned from a long sojourn in Paris, who
+gave a vivid account of proceedings there, Watt and Dr. Priestly being
+present. A few months later the revolution broke out. Young Harry
+Priestley, a son of the Doctor's, one evening burst into the
+drawing-room, waving his hat and crying, "Hurrah! Liberty, Reason,
+Brotherly Love forever! Down with kingcraft and priestcraft! The majesty
+of the people forever! France is free!" Dr. Priestley was deeply stirred
+and became the most prominent of all in the cause of the rights of man.
+He hailed the acts of the National Assembly abolishing monarchy,
+nobility and church. He was often engaged in discussions with the local
+clergy on theological dogmas. He wrote a pamphlet upon the French
+Revolution, and Burke attacked him in the House of Commons. All this
+naturally concentrated local opposition upon him as leader. The
+enthusiasts mistakenly determined to have a public dinner to celebrate
+the anniversary of the Revolution, and no less than eighty gentlemen
+attended, altho many advised against it. Priestley himself was not
+present. A mob collected outside and demolished the windows. The cry was
+raised, "To the new meeting-house!" the chapel in which Priestley
+ministered. The chapel was set on fire. Thence the riot proceeded to
+Priestley's house. The doctor and his family, being warned, had left
+shortly before. The house was at the mercy of the mob, which broke in,
+destroyed furniture, chemical laboratory and library, and finally set
+fire to the house. Some of the very best citizens suffered in like
+manner. Mr. Ryland, one of the most munificent benefactors of the town,
+Mr. Taylor, the banker, and Hutton, the estimable book-seller, were
+among the number. The home of Dr. Withering, member of the Lunar
+Society, was entered, but the timely arrival of troops saved it from
+destruction. The members of the Lunar Society, or the "lunatics," as
+they were popularly called, were especially marked for attack. The mob
+cried, "No philosophers!" "Church and King forever!" All this put
+Boulton and Watt upon their guard, for they were prominent members of
+the society. They called their workmen together, explained the
+criminally of the rioters, and placed arms in their hands on their
+promise to defend them if attacked. Meanwhile everything portable was
+packed up ready to be removed.
+
+Watt wrote to Mr. DeLuc, July 19, 1791:
+
+    Though our principles, which are well known, as friends to the
+    established government and enemies of republican principles,
+    should have been our protection from a mob whose watchword was
+    Church and King, yet our safety was principally owing to most of
+    the Dissenters living south of the town; for after the first
+    moment they did not seem over-nice in their discrimination of
+    religion and principles. I, among others, was pointed out as a
+    Presbyterian, though I never was in a meeting-house (Dissenting
+    Church) in Birmingham, and Mr. Boulton is well-known as a
+    Churchman. We had everything most portable packed up, fearing
+    the worst. However, all is well with us.
+
+From all this we gather the impression that Radical principles had
+permeated the leading minds of Birmingham to a considerable extent,
+probably around the Lunar Society district in greater measure than in
+other quarters, altho clubs of ardent supporters were formed in London
+and the principal provincial cities.
+
+In the political field, we have only one appearance of Watt reported.
+Early in 1784, we find him taking the lead in getting up a loyal address
+to the king on the appointment as prime minister of Pitt, who proposed
+to tax coal, iron, copper and other raw materials of manufacture to the
+amount of $5,000,000 per year, a considerable sum in those days when
+manufacturing was in its infancy. Boulton also joined in opposition.
+They wisely held that for a manufacturing nation "to tax raw materials
+was suicidal: let taxes be laid upon luxuries, upon vices, and, if you
+like, upon property; tax riches when got, but not the means of getting
+them. Of all things don't cut open the hen that lays the golden eggs."
+
+Watt's services were enlisted and he drew up a paper for circulation
+upon the subject. The policy failed, and soon after Pitt was converted
+to sounder doctrines by Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." Free trade has
+ruled Britain ever since, and, being the country that could manufacture
+cheapest, and indeed, the only manufacturing country for many years,
+this policy has made her the richest, per capita, of all nations. The
+day may be not far distant when America, soon to be the cheapest
+manufacturing country for many, as it already is for a few, staple
+articles, will be crying for free trade, and urging free entrance to the
+markets of the world. To tax the luxuries and vices, to tax wealth got
+and not in the making, as proposed by Watt and Boulton, is the policy to
+follow. Watt shows himself to have been a profound economist.
+
+Watt had cause for deep anxiety for his eldest son, James, who had taken
+an active part in the agitation. He and his friend, Mr. Cooper of
+Manchester, were appointed deputies by the "Constitutional Society," to
+proceed to Paris and present an address of congratulation to the Jacobin
+Club. Young Watt was carried away, and became intimate with the leaders.
+Southey says he actually prevented a duel between Danton and Robespierre
+by appearing on the ground and remonstrating with them, pointing out
+that if either fell the cause must suffer.
+
+Upon young Watt's return, king's messengers arrived in Birmingham and
+seized persons concerned in seditious correspondence. Watt suggests that
+Boulton should see his son and arrange for his leaving for America, or
+some foreign land, for a time. This proved to be unnecessary; his son
+was not arrested, and in a short time all was forgotten. He entered the
+works with Boulton's son as partner, and became an admirable manager.
+To-day we regard his mild republicanism, his alliance with Jacobin
+leaders, and especially his bold intervention in the quarrel between two
+of the principal actors in the tragedy of the French Revolution, as "a
+ribbon in the cap of youth." That his douce father did the same and was
+proud of his eldest born seems probable. Our readers will also judge for
+themselves whether the proud father had not himself a strong liking for
+democratic principles, "the rights of the people," "the royalty of man,"
+which Burns was then blazing forth, and held such sentiments as quite
+justified the prime minister's accusation that he was "a sad radical."
+
+In Britain, since Watt's day, all traces of opposition to monarchy
+aroused by the French Revolution have disappeared, as completely as the
+monarchy of King George. The "limited monarchy" of to-day, developed
+during the admirable reign of Queen Victoria, has taken its place. The
+French abolished monarchy by a frontal attack upon the citadel,
+involving serious loss. Not such the policy of the colder Briton. He won
+his great victory, losing nothing, by flanking the position. That the
+king "could do no wrong," is a doctrine almost coeval with modern
+history, flowing from the "divine right" of kings, and, as such, was
+quietly accepted. It needed only to be properly harnessed to become a
+very serviceable agent for registering the people's will.
+
+It was obvious that the acceptance of the doctrine that the king could
+do no wrong involved the duty of proving the truth of the axiom, and it
+was equally obvious that the only possible way of doing this was that
+the king should not be allowed to do anything. Hence he was made the
+mouthpiece of his ministers, and it is not the king, but they, who,
+being fallible men, may occasionally err. The monarch, in losing power
+to do anything has gained power to influence everything. The ministers
+hold office through the approval of the House of Commons. Members of
+that house are elected by the people. Thus stands government in Britain
+"broad-based upon the people's will."
+
+All that the revolutionists of Watt's day desired has, in substance,
+been obtained, and Britain has become in truth a "crowned republic,"
+with "government of the people, for the people, and by the people." This
+steady and beneficent development was peaceably attained. The
+difference between the French and British methods is that between
+revolution and evolution.
+
+In America's political domain, a similar evolution has been even more
+silently at work than in Britain during the past century, and is not yet
+exhausted--the transformation of a loose confederacy of sovereign
+states, with different laws, into one solid government, which assumes
+control and insures uniformity over one department after another. The
+centripetal forces grow stronger with the years; power leaves the
+individual states and drifts to Washington, as the necessity for each
+successive change becomes apparent. In the regulation of interstate
+commerce, of trusts, and in other fields, final authority over the whole
+land gravitates more and more to Washington. It is a beneficent
+movement, likely to result in uniform national laws upon many subjects
+in which present diversity creates confusion. Marriage and divorce laws,
+bankruptcy laws, corporation charter privileges, and many other
+important questions may be expected to become uniform under this
+evolutionary process. The Supreme Court decision that the Union was an
+indissoluble union of indissoluble states, carries with it finally
+uniform regulation of many interstate problems, in every respect
+salutary, and indispensable for the perfect union of the American
+people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WATT IN OLD AGE
+
+
+Watt gracefully glided into old age. This is the great test of success
+in life. To every stage a laurel, but to happy old age the crown. It was
+different with his friend Boulton, who continued to frequent the works
+and busy himself in affairs much as before, altho approaching his
+eightieth year. Watt could still occupy himself in his garret, where his
+"mind to him a Kingdom was," upon the scientific pursuits which charmed
+him. He revisited Paris in 1802 and renewed acquaintances with his old
+friends, with whom he spent five weeks. He frequently treated himself to
+tours throughout England, Scotland and Wales. In the latter country, he
+purchased a property which attracted him by its beauties, and which he
+greatly improved. It became at a later date, under his son, quite an
+extensive estate, much diversified, and not lacking altogether the stern
+grandeur of his native Scotland. He planted trees and took intense
+delight in his garden, being very fond of flowers. The farmhouse gave
+him a comfortable home upon his visits. The fine woods which now richly
+clothe the valley and agreeably diversify the river and mountain
+scenery were chiefly planted under his superintendence, many by his own
+hand. In short, the blood in his veins, the lessons of his childhood
+that made him a "child of the mist," happy in roaming among the hills,
+reasserted their power in old age as the Celtic element powerfully does.
+He turned more and more to nature.
+
+    "That never yet betrayed the heart that loved her--"
+
+We see him strolling through his woods, and imagine him crooning to
+himself from that marvellous memory that forgot no gem:
+
+                    For I have learned
+    To look on nature, not as in the hour
+    Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
+    The still, sad music of humanity,
+    Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power
+    To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
+    A presence that disturbs me with the joy
+    Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
+    Of something far more deeply interfused,
+    Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
+    And the round ocean and the living air,
+    And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
+    A motion and a spirit, that impels
+    All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
+    And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
+    A lover of the meadows and the woods,
+    And mountains; and of all that we behold
+    From this green earth.
+
+Twice Watt was requested to undertake the honor of the shrievalty; in
+1803 that of Staffordshire, and in 1816 that of Radnorshire, both of
+which were positively declined.
+
+He finally found it necessary to declare that he was not a member of the
+Church of England, but of the Presbyterian church of Scotland, a reason
+which in that day was conclusive.
+
+In 1816, he was in his eighty-first year, and no difficulty seems then
+to have been found for excusing him, for it seems the assumption of the
+duties was compulsory. It was "the voice of age resistless in its
+feebleness."
+
+The day had come when Watt awakened to one of the saddest of all truths,
+that his friends were one by one rapidly passing away, the circle ever
+narrowing, the few whose places never could be filled becoming fewer, he
+in the centre left more and more alone. Nothing grieved Watt so much as
+this. In 1794 his partner, Roebuck, fell; in 1799, his inseparable
+friend, and supporter in his hour of need, Dr. Black, and also Withering
+of the Lunar Society; and in 1802 Darwin "of the silver song," one of
+his earliest English friends. In 1804, his brilliant son Gregory died, a
+terrible shock. In 1805, his first Glasgow College intimate, Robison;
+Dr. Beddoes in 1808; Boulton, his partner, in 1809; Dr. Wilson in 1811;
+DeLuc in 1817. Many other friends of less distinction fell in these
+years who were not less dear to him. He says, "by one friend's
+withdrawing after another," he felt himself "in danger of standing alone
+among strangers, the son of later times."
+
+He writes to Boulton on November 23, 1802:
+
+    We cannot help feeling, with deep regret, the circle of our old
+    friends gradually diminishing, while our ability to increase it
+    by new ones is equally diminished; but perhaps it is a wise
+    dispensation of Providence so to diminish our enjoyments in this
+    world, that when our turn comes we may leave it without regret.
+
+He writes to another correspondent, July 12, 1810:
+
+    I, in particular, have reason to thank God that he has preserved
+    me so well as I am, to so late a period, while the greater part
+    of my contemporaries, healthier and younger men, have passed
+    "the bourne from which no traveller returns." It is, however, a
+    painful contemplation to see so many who were dear to us pass
+    away before us; and our consolation should be, that as
+    Providence has been pleased to prolong our life, we should
+    render ourselves as useful to society as we can while we live.
+
+And again, when seventy-six years of age, January, 1812, he writes:
+
+    On these subjects I can offer no other consolations than what
+    are derived from religion: they have only gone before us a
+    little while, in that path we all must tread, and we should be
+    thankful they were spared so long to their friends and the
+    world.
+
+Sir Walter Scott declares:
+
+    That is the worst part of life when its earlier path is trod. If
+    my limbs get stiff, my walks are made shorter, and my rides
+    slower; if my eyes fail me, I can use glasses and a large print:
+    if I get a little deaf, I comfort myself that except in a few
+    instances I shall be no great loser by missing one full half of
+    what is spoken: _but I feel the loneliness of age when my
+    companions and friends are taken from me._
+
+All his life until retiring from business, Watt's care was to obtain
+sufficient for the support of himself and family upon the most modest
+scale. He had no surplus to devote to ends beyond self, but as soon as
+he retired with a small competence it was different, and we accordingly
+find him promptly beginning to apply some portion of his still small
+revenue to philanthropical ends. Naturally, his thoughts reverted first
+to his native town and the university to which he owed so much.
+
+In 1808 he founded the Watt Prize in Glasgow University, saying:
+
+    Entertaining a due sense of the many favours conferred upon me
+    by the University of Glasgow, I wish to leave them some memorial
+    of my gratitude, and, at the same time, to excite a spirit of
+    inquiry and exertion among the students of Natural Philosophy
+    and Chemistry attending the College; which appears to me the
+    more useful, as the very existence of Britain, as a nation,
+    seems to me, in great measure, to depend upon her exertions in
+    science and in the arts.
+
+The University conferred the degree of LL.D. upon him in 1774, and its
+great engineering laboratory bears his name.
+
+In 1816, he made a donation to the town of Greenock for scientific
+books, stating it to be his intention
+
+    to form the beginning of a scientific library for the
+    instruction of the youth of Greenock, in the hope of prompting
+    others to add to it, and of rendering his townsmen as eminent
+    for their knowledge as they are for the spirit of enterprise.
+
+This has grown to be a library containing 15,000 volumes, and is a
+valuable adjunct of the Watt Institution, founded by his son in memory
+of his father, which is to-day the educational centre of Greenock. Its
+entrance is adorned by a remarkably fine statue of Watt, funds for
+which were raised by public subscription.
+
+Many societies honored the great inventor. He was a fellow of the Royal
+Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of London, Member of the
+Batavian Society, correspondent of the French Academy of Sciences, and
+was one of the eight Foreign Associates of the French Academy of
+Sciences.
+
+Watt's almost morbid dislike for publicity leaves many well-known acts
+of kindness and charity hidden from all save the recipients. Muirhead
+assures us that such gifts as we can well believe were not wanting.
+Watt's character as a kindly neighbor always stood high. He was one of
+those "who will not receive a reward for that for which God accounts
+Himself a debtor--persons that dare trust God with their charity, and
+without a witness."
+
+In the autumn of 1819 an illness of no great apparent severity caused
+some little anxiety to Watt's family, and was soon recognised by himself
+as the messenger sent to apprise him of his end. This summons he met
+with the calm and tranquil mind, that, looking backward, could have
+found little of serious nature to repent, and looking forward, found
+nothing to fear. "He often expressed his gratitude to the Giver of All
+Good who had so signally prospered the work of his hands and blessed him
+with length of days and riches and honour." On August 19, 1819, aged 83,
+in his own home at Heathfield, he tranquilly breathed his last, deeply
+mourned by all who were privileged to know him. In the parish
+churchyard, alongside of Boulton, he was most appropriately laid to
+rest. Thus the two strong men, lifelong friends and partners, who had
+never had a serious difference, "lovely and pleasant in their lives, in
+their death were not divided."
+
+It may be doubted whether there be on record so charming a business
+connection as that of Boulton and Watt; in their own increasingly close
+union for twenty-five years, and, at its expiration, in the renewal of
+that union in their sons under the same title; in their sons' close
+union as friends without friction as in the first generation; in the
+wonderful progress of the world resulting from their works; in their
+lying down side by side in death upon the bosom of Mother Earth in the
+quiet churchyard, as they had stood side by side in the battle of life;
+and in the faithful servant Murdoch joining them at the last, as he had
+joined them in his prime. In the sweet and precious influences which
+emanate from all this, may we not gratefully make acknowledgment that in
+contemplation thereof we are lifted into a higher atmosphere, refreshed,
+encouraged, and bettered by the true story of men like ourselves, whom
+if we can never hope to equal, we may at least try in part to imitate.
+
+A meeting was called in London to take steps for a monument to Watt to
+be placed in Westminster Abbey. The prime minister presided and
+announced a subscription of five hundred pounds sterling from His
+Majesty. It may truly be said that
+
+    A meeting more distinguished by rank, station and talent, was
+    never before assembled to do honour to genius, and to modest and
+    retiring worth; and a more spontaneous, noble, and
+    discriminating testimony was never borne to the virtues,
+    talents, and public services of any individual, in any age or
+    country.
+
+The result was the colossal statue by Chantrey which bears the following
+inscription, pronounced to be beyond comparison "the finest lapidary
+inscription in the English language." It is from the pen of Lord
+Brougham:
+
+      NOT TO PERPETUATE A NAME
+    WHICH MUST ENDURE WHILE THE PEACEFUL ARTS FLOURISH
+      BUT TO SHEW
+    THAT MANKIND HAVE LEARNT TO HONOUR THOSE
+      WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE
+    THE KING
+      HIS MINISTERS, AND MANY OF THE NOBLES
+    AND COMMONERS OF THE REALM
+      RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO
+    JAMES WATT
+      WHO DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL GENIUS
+    EARLY EXERCISED IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH
+      TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF
+    THE STEAM-ENGINE
+      ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OF HIS COUNTRY
+    INCREASED THE POWER OF MAN
+      AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE
+    AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF SCIENCE
+      AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD
+    BORN AT GREENOCK MDCCXXXVI
+      DIED AT HEATHFIELD IN STAFFORDSHIRE MDCCCXIX
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+WATT, THE INVENTOR AND DISCOVERER
+
+
+In the foregoing pages an effort has been made to follow and describe
+Watt's work in detail as it was performed, but we believe our readers
+will thank us for presenting the opinions of a few of the highest
+scientific and legal authorities upon what Watt really did. Lord
+Brougham has this to say of Watt:
+
+    One of the most astonishing circumstances in this truly great
+    man was the versatility of his talents. His accomplishments were
+    so various, the powers of his mind were so vast, and yet of such
+    universal application, that it was hard to say whether we should
+    most admire the extraordinary grasp of his understanding, or the
+    accuracy of nice research with which he could bring it to bear
+    upon the most minute objects of investigation. I forget of whom
+    it was said, that his mind resembled the trunk of an elephant,
+    which can pick up straws and tear up trees by the roots. Mr.
+    Watt in some sort resembled the greatest and most celebrated of
+    his own inventions; of which we are at a loss whether most to
+    wonder at the power of grappling with the mightiest objects, or
+    of handling the most minute; so that while nothing seems too
+    large for its grasp, nothing seems too small for the delicacy of
+    its touch; which can cleave rocks and pour forth rivers from the
+    bowels of the earth, and with perfect exactness, though not with
+    greater ease, fashion the head of a pin, or strike the impress
+    of some curious die. Now those who knew Mr. Watt, had to
+    contemplate a man whose genius could create such an engine, and
+    indulge in the most abstruse speculations of philosophy, and
+    could at once pass from the most sublime researches of geology
+    and physical astronomy, the formation of our globe, and the
+    structure of the universe, to the manufacture of a needle or a
+    nail; who could discuss in the same conversation, and with equal
+    accuracy, if not with the same consummate skill, the most
+    forbidding details of art, and the elegances of classical
+    literature; the most abstruse branches of science, and the
+    niceties of verbal criticism.
+
+    There was one quality in Mr. Watt which most honorably
+    distinguished him from too many inventors, and was worthy of all
+    imitation; he was not only entirely free from jealousy, but he
+    exercised a careful and scrupulous self-denial, and was anxious
+    not to appear, even by accident, as appropriating to himself
+    that which he thought belonged in part to others. I have heard
+    him refuse the honor universally ascribed to him, of being
+    inventor of the steam-engine, and call himself simply its
+    improver; though, in my mind, to doubt his right to that honor
+    would be as inaccurate as to question Sir Isaac Newton's claim
+    to his greatest discoveries, because Descartes in mathematics,
+    and Galileo in astronomy and mechanics, had preceded him; or to
+    deny the merits of his illustrious successor, because galvanism
+    was not his discovery, though before his time it had remained as
+    useless to science as the instrument called a steam-engine was
+    to the arts before Mr. Watt. The only jealousy I have known him
+    betray was with respect to others, in the nice adjustment he was
+    fond of giving to the claims of inventors. Justly prizing
+    scientific discovery above all other possessions, he deemed the
+    title to it so sacred, that you might hear him arguing by the
+    hour to settle disputed rights; and if you ever perceived his
+    temper ruffled, it was when one man's invention was claimed by,
+    or given to, another; or when a clumsy adulation pressed upon
+    himself that which he knew to be not his own.
+
+Sir Humphrey Davy says:
+
+    I consider it as a duty incumbent on me to endeavor to set forth
+    his peculiar and exalted merits, which live in the recollection
+    of his contemporaries and will transmit his name with immortal
+    glory to posterity. Those who consider James Watt only as a
+    great practical mechanic form a very erroneous idea of his
+    character; he was equally distinguished as a natural philosopher
+    and a chemist, and his inventions demonstrate his profound
+    knowledge of those sciences, and that peculiar characteristic of
+    genius, the union of them for practical application. The steam
+    engine before his time was a rude machine, the result of simple
+    experiments on the compression of the atmosphere, and the
+    condensation of steam. Mr. Watt's improvements were not produced
+    by accidental circumstances or by a single ingenious thought;
+    they were founded on delicate and refined experiments, connected
+    with the discoveries of Dr. Black. He had to investigate the
+    cause of the cold produced by evaporation, of the heat
+    occasioned by the condensation of steam--to determine the source
+    of the air appearing when water was acted upon by an exhausting
+    power; the ratio of the volume of steam to its generating water,
+    and the law by which the elasticity of steam increased with the
+    temperature; labor, time, numerous and difficult experiments,
+    were required for the ultimate result; and when his principle
+    was obtained, the application of it to produce the movement of
+    machinery demanded a new species of intellectual and
+    experimental labor.
+
+    The Archimedes of the ancient world by his mechanical inventions
+    arrested the course of the Romans, and stayed for a time the
+    downfall of his country. How much more has our modern Archimedes
+    done? He has permanently elevated the strength and wealth of his
+    great empire: and, during the last long war, his inventions; and
+    their application were amongst the great means which enabled
+    Britain to display power and resources so infinitely above what
+    might have been expected from the numerical strength of her
+    population. Archimedes valued principally abstract science;
+    James Watt, on the contrary, brought every principle to some
+    practical use; and, as it were, made science descend from heaven
+    to earth. The great inventions of the Syracusan died with
+    him--those of our philosopher live, and their utility and
+    importance are daily more felt; they are among the grand results
+    which place civilised above savage man--which secure the triumph
+    of intellect, and exalt genius and moral force over mere brutal
+    strength, courage and numbers.
+
+Sir James Mackintosh says:
+
+    It may be presumptuous in me to add anything in my own words to
+    such just and exalted praise. Let me rather borrow the language
+    in which the great father of modern philosophy, Lord Bacon
+    himself, has spoken of inventors in the arts of life. In a
+    beautiful, though not very generally read fragment of his,
+    called the New Atlantis, a voyage to an imaginary island, he has
+    imagined a university, or rather royal society, under the name
+    of Solomon's House, or the College of the Six Days' Works; and
+    among the various buildings appropriated to this institution, he
+    describes a gallery destined to contain the statues of
+    inventors. He does not disdain to place in it not only the
+    inventor of one of the greatest instruments of science, but the
+    discoverer of the use of the silkworm, and of other still more
+    humble contrivances for the comfort of man. What place would
+    Lord Bacon have assigned in such a gallery to the statue of Mr.
+    Watt? Is it too much to say, that, considering the magnitude of
+    the discoveries, the genius and science necessary to make them,
+    and the benefits arising from them to the world, that statue
+    must have been placed at the head of those of all inventors in
+    all ages and nations. In another part of his writings the same
+    great man illustrates the dignity of useful inventions by one of
+    those happy allusions to the beautiful mythology of the
+    ancients, which he often employs to illuminate as well as to
+    decorate reason. "The dignity," says he, "of this end of
+    endowment of man's life with new commodity appeareth, by the
+    estimation that antiquity made of such as guided thereunto; for
+    whereas founders of states, lawgivers, extirpators of tyrants,
+    fathers of the people, were honored but with the titles of
+    demigods, inventors were ever consecrated amongst the gods
+    themselves."
+
+The Earl of Aberdeen says:
+
+    It would ill become me to attempt to add to the eulogy which you
+    have already heard on the distinguished individual whose genius
+    and talents we have met this day to acknowledge. That eulogy has
+    been pronounced by those whose praises are well calculated to
+    confer honor, even upon him whose name does honor to his
+    country. I feel in common with them, although I can but ill
+    express that intense admiration which the bare recollection of
+    those discoveries must excite, which have rendered us familiar
+    with a power before nearly unknown, and which have taught us to
+    wield, almost at will, perhaps the mightiest instrument ever
+    intrusted to the hands of man. I feel, too, that in erecting a
+    monument to his memory, placed, as it may be, among the
+    memorials of kings, and heroes, and statesmen, and philosophers,
+    that it will be then in its proper place; and most in its proper
+    place, if in the midst of those who have been most distinguished
+    by their usefulness to mankind, and by the spotless integrity of
+    their lives.
+
+Lord Jeffrey says:
+
+    This name fortunately needs no commemoration of ours; for he
+    that bore it survived to see it crowned with undisputed and
+    unenvied honors; and many generations will probably pass away,
+    before it shall have gathered "all its fame." We have said that
+    Mr. Watt was the great _improver_ of the steam engine; but, in
+    truth, as to all that is admirable in its structure, or vast in
+    its utility, he should rather be described as its _inventor_. It
+    was by his inventions that its action was so regulated, as to
+    make it capable of being applied to the finest and most delicate
+    manufactures, and its power so increased, as to set weight and
+    solidity at defiance. By his admirable contrivance, it has
+    become a thing stupendous alike for its force and its
+    flexibility, for the prodigious power which it can exert, and
+    the ease, and precision, and ductility, with which it can be
+    varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant, that
+    can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as nothing to it. It can
+    engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal before it;
+    draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as gossamer, and
+    lift a ship of war like a bauble in the air. It can embroider
+    muslin and forge anchors, cut steel into ribbons, and impel
+    loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves.
+
+    It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits
+    which these inventions have conferred upon this country. There
+    is no branch of industry that has not been indebted to them;
+    and, in all the most material, they have not only widened most
+    magnificently the field of its exertions, but multiplied a
+    thousandfold the amount of its productions. It is our improved
+    steam engine that has fought the battles of Europe, and exalted
+    and sustained, through the late tremendous contest, the
+    political greatness of our land. It is the same great power
+    which now enables us to pay the interest of our debt, and to
+    maintain the arduous struggle in which we are still engaged
+    (1819), with the skill and capital of countries less oppressed
+    with taxation. But these are poor and narrow views of its
+    importance. It has increased indefinitely the mass of human
+    comforts and enjoyments, and rendered cheap and accessible, all
+    over the world, the materials of wealth and prosperity. It has
+    armed the feeble hand of man, in short, with a power to which no
+    limits can be assigned; completed the dominion of mind over the
+    most refractory qualities of matter; and laid a sure foundation
+    for all those future miracles of mechanical power which are to
+    aid and reward the labors of after generations. It is to the
+    genius of one man, too, that all this is mainly owing; and
+    certainly no man ever bestowed such a gift on his kind. The
+    blessing is not only universal, but unbounded; and the fabled
+    inventors of the plough and the loom, who were deified by the
+    erring gratitude of their rude contemporaries, conferred less
+    important benefits on mankind than the inventor of our present
+    steam engine.
+
+    This will be the fame of Watt with future generations; and it is
+    sufficient for his race and his country. But to those to whom he
+    more immediately belonged, who lived in his society and enjoyed
+    his conversation, it is not, perhaps, the character in which he
+    will be most frequently recalled--most deeply lamented--or even
+    most highly admired.
+
+We shall end by quoting the greatest living authority, Lord Kelvin, now
+Lord Chancellor of Glasgow University, which Watt and he have done so
+much to render famous:
+
+    Precisely that single-acting, high-pressure, syringe-engine,
+    made and experimented on by James Watt one hundred and forty
+    years ago in his Glasgow College workshop, now in 1901, with the
+    addition of a surface-condenser cooled by air to receive the
+    waste steam, and a pump to return the water thence to the
+    boiler, constitutes the common-road motor, which, in the opinion
+    of many good judges, is the most successful of all the different
+    motors which have been made and tried within the last few years.
+    Without a condenser, Watt's high-pressure, single-acting engine
+    of 1761, only needs the cylinder-cover with piston-rod passing
+    steam-tight through it (as introduced by Watt himself in
+    subsequent developments), and the valves proper for admitting
+    steam on both sides of the piston and for working expansively,
+    to make it the very engine, which, during the whole of the past
+    century, has done practically all the steam work of the world,
+    and is doing it still, except on the sea or lakes or rivers,
+    where there is plenty of condensing water. Even the double and
+    triple and quadruple expansion engines, by which the highest
+    modern economy for power and steam engines has been obtained,
+    are splendid mechanical developments of the principle of
+    expansion, discovered and published by Watt, and used, though to
+    a comparatively limited extent, in his own engines.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Thus during the five years from 1761-66 Watt had worked out all
+    the principles and invented all that was essential in the
+    details for realising them in the most perfect steam engines of
+    the present day.
+
+So passes Watt from view as the discoverer and inventor of the "most
+powerful instrument in the hands of man to alter the face of the
+physical world." He takes his place "at the head of all inventors of all
+ages and all nations."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+WATT, THE MAN
+
+
+Of Watt, the genius, possessed of abilities far beyond those of other
+men, a scientist and philosopher, a mechanician and a craftsman, one who
+gravitated without effort to the top of every society, and who, even
+when a young workman, made his workshop the meeting-place of the leaders
+of Glasgow University for the interchange of views upon the highest and
+most abstruse subjects--with all this we have already dealt, but it is
+only part, and not the nobler part. He excelled all his fellows in
+knowledge, but there is much beyond mere knowledge in man. Strip Watt of
+all those commanding talents that brought him primacy without effort,
+for no man ever avoided precedence more persistently than he, and the
+question still remains: what manner of man was he, as man? Surely our
+readers would esteem the task but half done that revealed only what was
+unusual in Watt's head. What of his heart? is naturally asked. We hasten
+to record that in the domain of the personal graces and virtues, we have
+evidence of his excellence as copious and assured as for his
+pre-eminence in invention and discovery.
+
+We cite the testimony of those who knew him best. It is seldom that a
+great man is so fortunate in his eulogists. The picture drawn of him by
+his friend, Lord Jeffrey, must rank as one of the finest ever produced,
+as portrait and tribute combined. That it is a discriminating statement,
+altho so eulogistic, may well be accepted, since numerous contributory
+proofs are given by others of Watt's personal characteristics. Says Lord
+Jeffrey:
+
+    Independently of his great attainments in mechanics, Mr. Watt
+    was an extraordinary, and in many respects a wonderful man.
+    Perhaps no individual in his age possessed so much and such
+    varied and exact information--had read so much, or remembered
+    what he had read so accurately and well. He had infinite
+    quickness of apprehension, a prodigious memory, and a certain
+    rectifying and methodising power of understanding, which
+    extracted something precious out of all that was presented to
+    it. His stores of miscellaneous knowledge were immense, and yet
+    less astonishing than the command he had at all times over them.
+    It seemed as if every subject that was casually started in
+    conversation with him, had been that which he had been last
+    occupied in studying and exhausting; such was the copiousness,
+    the precision, and the admirable clearness of the information
+    which he poured out upon it without effort or hesitation. Nor
+    was this promptitude and compass of knowledge confined in any
+    degree to the studies connected with his ordinary pursuits. That
+    he should have been minutely and extensively skilled in
+    chemistry and the arts, and in most of the branches of physical
+    science, might perhaps have been conjectured; but it could not
+    have been inferred from his usual occupations, and probably is
+    not generally known, that he was curiously learned in many
+    branches of antiquity, metaphysics, medicine, and etymology, and
+    perfectly at home in all the details of architecture, music and
+    law. He was well acquainted, too, with most of the modern
+    languages, and familiar with their most recent literature. Nor
+    was it at all extraordinary to hear the great mechanician and
+    engineer detailing and expounding, for hours together, the
+    metaphysical theories of the German logicians, or criticising
+    the measures or the matter of the German poetry.
+
+    His astonishing memory was aided, no doubt, in a great measure,
+    by a still higher and rarer faculty--by his power of digesting
+    and arranging in its proper place all the information he
+    received, and of casting aside and rejecting, as it were
+    instinctively, whatever was worthless or immaterial. Every
+    conception that was suggested to his mind seemed instantly to
+    take its place among its other rich furniture, and to be
+    condensed into the smallest and most convenient form. He never
+    appeared, therefore, to be at all encumbered or perplexed with
+    the _verbiage_ of the dull books he perused, or the idle talk to
+    which he listened; but to have at once extracted, by a kind of
+    intellectual alchemy, all that was worthy of attention, and to
+    have reduced it, for his own use, to its true value and to its
+    simplest form. And thus it often happened that a great deal more
+    was learned from his brief and vigorous account of the theories
+    and arguments of tedious writers, than an ordinary student could
+    ever have derived from the most painful study of the originals,
+    and that errors and absurdities became manifest from the mere
+    clearness and plainness of his statement of them, which might
+    have deluded and perplexed most of his hearers without that
+    invaluable assistance.
+
+    It is needless to say, that, with those vast resources, his
+    conversation was at all times rich and instructive in no
+    ordinary degree; but it was, if possible, still more pleasing
+    than wise, and had all the charms of familiarity, with all the
+    substantial treasures of knowledge. No man could be more social
+    in his spirit, less assuming or fastidious in his manners, or
+    more kind and indulgent toward all who approached him. He rather
+    liked to talk, at least in his latter years, but though he took
+    a considerable share of the conversation, he rarely suggested
+    the topics on which it was to turn, but readily and quietly took
+    up whatever was presented by those around him, and astonished
+    the idle and barren propounders of an ordinary theme, by the
+    treasures which he drew from the mine they had inconsciously
+    opened. He generally seemed, indeed, to have no choice or
+    predilection for one subject of discourse rather than another;
+    but allowed his mind, like a great cyclopaedia, to be opened at
+    any letter his associates might choose to turn up, and only
+    endeavour to select, from his inexhaustible stores, what might
+    be best adapted to the taste of his present hearers. As to their
+    capacity he gave himself no trouble; and, indeed, such was his
+    singular talent for making all things plain, clear, and
+    intelligible, that scarcely any one could be aware of such a
+    deficiency in his presence. His talk, too, though overflowing
+    with information, had no resemblance to lecturing or solemn
+    discoursing, but, on the contrary, was full of colloquial spirit
+    and pleasantry. He had a certain quiet and grave humour, which
+    ran through most of his conversation, and a vein of temperate
+    jocularity, which gave infinite zest and effect to the condensed
+    and inexhaustible information which formed its main staple and
+    characteristic. There was a little air of affected testiness,
+    and a tone of pretended rebuke and contradiction, with which he
+    used to address his younger friends, that was always felt by
+    them as an endearing mark of his kindness and familiarity, and
+    prized accordingly, far beyond all the solemn compliments that
+    ever proceeded from the lips of authority. His voice was deep
+    and powerful, although he commonly spoke in a low and somewhat
+    monotonous tone, which harmonised admirably with the weight and
+    brevity of his observations, and set off to the greatest
+    advantage the pleasant anecdotes, which he delivered with the
+    same grave brow, and the same calm smile playing soberly on his
+    lips. There was nothing of effort indeed, or impatience, any
+    more than pride or levity, in his demeanour; and there was a
+    finer expression of reposing strength, and mild self-possession
+    in his manner, than we ever recollect to have met with in any
+    other person. He had in his character the utmost abhorrence for
+    all sorts of forwardness, parade and pretensions; and, indeed,
+    never failed to put all such impostures out of countenance, by
+    the manly plainness and honest intrepidity of his language and
+    deportment.
+
+    In his temper and dispositions he was not only kind and
+    affectionate, but generous, and considerate of the feelings of
+    all around him; and gave the most liberal assistance and
+    encouragement to all young persons who showed any indications of
+    talent, or applied to him for patronage or advice. His health,
+    which was delicate from his youth upwards, seemed to become
+    firmer as he advanced in years; and he preserved, up almost to
+    the last moment of his existence, not only the full command of
+    his extraordinary intellect, but all the alacrity of spirit, and
+    the social gaiety, which had illumined his happiest days. His
+    friends in this part of the country never saw him more full of
+    intellectual vigour and colloquial animation, never more
+    delightful or more instructive, than in his last visit to
+    Scotland in the autumn of 1817. Indeed, it was after that time
+    that he applied himself, with all the ardour of early life, to
+    the invention of a machine for mechanically copying all sorts of
+    sculpture and statuary; and distributed among his friends some
+    of its earliest performances, as the productions of a young
+    artist just entering on his eighty-third year.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    All men of learning and science were his cordial friends; and
+    such was the influence of his mild character and perfect
+    fairness and liberality, even upon the pretenders to these
+    accomplishments, that he lived to disarm even envy itself, and
+    died, we verily believe, without a single enemy.
+
+Professor Robison, the most intimate friend of his youth, records that:
+
+    When to the superiority of knowledge in his own line, which
+    every man confessed, there was joined the naive simplicity and
+    candour of his character, it is no wonder that the attachment of
+    his acquaintances was so strong. I have seen something of the
+    world and I am obliged to say that I never saw such another
+    instance of general and cordial attachment to a person whom all
+    acknowledged to be their superior. But this superiority was
+    concealed under the most amiable candour, and liberal allowance
+    of merit to every man. Mr. Watt was the first to ascribe to the
+    ingenuity of a friend things which were very often nothing but
+    his own surmises followed out and embodied by another. I am well
+    entitled to say this, and have often experienced it in my own
+    case.
+
+    This potent commander of the elements, this abridger of time and
+    space, this magician, whose cloudy machinery has produced a
+    change in the world, the effects of which, extraordinary as
+    they are, are perhaps only now beginning to be felt--was not
+    only the most profound man of science, the most successful
+    combiner of powers, and combiner of numbers, as adapted to
+    practical purposes--was not only one of the most generally
+    well-informed, but one of the best and kindest of human beings.
+    There he stood, surrounded by the little band of northern
+    _literati_, men not less tenacious, generally speaking, of their
+    own opinions, than the national regiments are supposed to be
+    jealous of the high character they have won upon service.
+    Methinks I yet see and hear what I shall never see or hear
+    again. The alert, kind, benevolent old man had his attention
+    alive to every one's question, his information at every one's
+    command. His talents and fancy overflowed on every subject. One
+    gentleman was a deep philologist, he talked with him on the
+    origin of the alphabet as if he had been coeval with Cadmus;
+    another, a celebrated critic, you would have said the old man
+    had studied political economy and _belles lettres_ all his life;
+    of science it is unnecessary to speak, it was his own
+    distinguished walk.
+
+Lord Brougham says:
+
+    We have been considering this eminent person as yet only in his
+    public capacity, as a benefactor of mankind by his fertile
+    genius and indomitable perseverance; and the best portraiture of
+    his intellectual character was to be found in the description of
+    his attainments. It is, however, proper to survey him also in
+    private life. He was unexceptionable in all its relations; and
+    as his activity was unmeasured, and his taste anything rather
+    than fastidious, he both was master of every variety of
+    knowledge, and was tolerant of discussion on subjects of very
+    subordinate importance compared with those on which he most
+    excelled. Not only all the sciences from the mathematics and
+    astronomy, down to botany, received his diligent attention, but
+    he was tolerably read in the lighter kinds of literature,
+    delighting in poetry and other works of fiction, full of the
+    stores of ancient literature, and readily giving himself up to
+    the critical disquisitions of commentators, and to discussion on
+    the fancies of etymology. His manners were most attractive from
+    their perfect nature and simplicity. His conversation was rich
+    in the measure which such stores and such easy taste might lead
+    us to expect, and it astonished all listeners with its admirable
+    precision, with the extraordinary memory it displayed, with the
+    distinctness it seemed to have, as if his mind had separate
+    niches for keeping each particular, and with its complete
+    rejection of all worthless and superfluous matter, as if the
+    same mind had some fine machine for acting like a fan, casting
+    off the chaff and the husk. But it had besides a peculiar charm
+    from the pleasure he took in conveying information where he was
+    peculiarly able to give it, and in joining with entire candor
+    whatever discussion happened to arise. Even upon matters on
+    which he was entitled to pronounce with absolute authority, he
+    never laid down the law, but spoke like any other partaker of
+    the conversation. I had the happiness of knowing Mr. Watt for
+    many years, in the intercourse of private life; and I will take
+    upon me to bear a testimony, in which all who had that
+    gratification I am sure will join, that they who only knew his
+    public merit, prodigious as that was, knew but half his worth.
+    Those who were admitted to his society will readily allow that
+    anything more pure, more candid, more simple, more scrupulously
+    loving of justice, than the whole habits of his life and
+    conversation proved him to be, was never known in society.
+
+The descriptions given by Lords Brougham, Jeffrey, the genial Sir
+Walter, and others, of Watt's universality of knowledge and his charm in
+discourse recall Canterbury's exordium:
+
+    Hear him but reason in divinity
+    And, all-admiring, with an inward wish consumed,
+    You would desire the king were made a prelate;
+    Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
+    You would say--it hath been all in all his study:
+    List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
+    A fearful battle rendered you in music.
+    Turn him to any cause of policy,
+    The Gordian knot of it he will unloose
+    Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,
+    The air, a chartered libertine, is still,
+    And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears
+    To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences.
+
+If Watt fell somewhat short of this, so no doubt did the king so greatly
+extolled, and much more so, probably, than the versatile Watt.
+
+Dr. Black, the discoverer of latent heat, upon his death-bed, hears that
+the Watt patent has been sustained, and is for the time restored again
+to interest in life. He whispers that he "could not help rejoicing at
+anything that benefited Jamie Watt."
+
+The Earl of Liverpool, prime minister, stated that Watt was remarkable
+for
+
+    the simplicity of his character, the modesty of his nature, the
+    absence of anything like presumption and ostentation, the
+    unwillingness to obtrude himself, not only upon the great and
+    powerful, but even on those of the scientific world to which he
+    belonged. A more excellent and amiable man in all the relations
+    of life I believe never existed.
+
+There can be no question that we have for our example, in the man Watt,
+a nature cast in the finest mold, seemingly composed of every creature's
+best. Transcendent as were his abilities as inventor and discoverer, we
+are persuaded that our readers will feel that his qualities as a man in
+all the relations of life were not less so, nor less worthy of record.
+His supreme abilities we can neither acquire nor emulate. These are
+individual and ended with him. But his virtues and charms as our
+fellow-man still shine steadily upon our paths and will shine upon those
+of our successors for ages to come, we trust not without leading us and
+them to tread some part of the way toward the acquisition of such
+qualities as enabled the friend of James Watt to declare his belief that
+"a more excellent and amiable man in all the relations of life never
+existed." A nobler tribute was never paid by man to man, yet was it not
+undeserved.
+
+So passes Jamie Watt, the man, from view--a man who attracted,
+delighted, impressed, instructed and made lifelong friends of his
+fellows, to a degree unsurpassed, perhaps unequalled.
+
+      "His life was gentle, and the elements
+      So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
+    And say to all the world, 'This was a man.'"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of James Watt, by Andrew Carnegie
+
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