Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_,
and superscripted text is preceded by a caret (^).
LIVES
OF
BOULTON AND WATT.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
LIVES OF BRITISH ENGINEERS, from the Earliest Times to the Death
of Robert Stephenson; with an Account of their Principal Works,
and a HISTORY OF INLAND COMMUNICATION IN BRITAIN. With Portraits
and 270 Woodcuts. 3 Vols. 8vo. 63_s._
SELF-HELP; WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHARACTER AND CONDUCT. Post 8vo.
6_s._
‘SELF-HELP,’ OU CARACTÈRE, CONDUITE ET PERSÉVÉRANCE, Illustrés à
l’aide de Biographie. Traduit de l’Anglais par ALFRED TALANDIER
sur le texte revu et corrigé par l’Auteur. Post 8vo. 5_s._
INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY: IRON-WORKERS AND TOOL-MAKERS. A Companion
Volume to ‘Self-Help.’ Post 8vo. 6_s._
JAMES BRINDLEY AND THE EARLY ENGINEERS. [Abridged from ‘Lives of
the Engineers.’] With Illustrations. Post 8vo. 6_s._
STORY OF THE LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON INCLUDING A MEMOIR OF HIS
SON ROBERT STEPHENSON. [Abridged from ‘Lives of the Engineers.’]
With Illustrations. Post 8vo. 6_s._
WORKMEN’S EARNINGS,--SAVINGS,--AND STRIKES: Reprinted from the
‘Quarterly Review.’ Post 8vo. 1_s._ 6_d._
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
[Illustration: _James Watt F.R.S._
_Engraved by W. Holl, after the portrait by Sir W. Beechy, R.A._
_Published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1865._]
LIVES
OF
BOULTON AND WATT.
PRINCIPALLY FROM THE ORIGINAL SOHO MSS.
COMPRISING ALSO
A HISTORY OF THE INVENTION AND INTRODUCTION
OF THE STEAM-ENGINE.
BY SAMUEL SMILES,
AUTHOR OF ‘INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY,’ ETC.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1865.
_The right of Translation is reserved._
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
AND CHARING CROSS.
PREFACE.
The present volume concludes the author’s ‘Lives of the Engineers.’ Its
preparation was begun many years since. The favourable reception given to
the ‘Life of George Stephenson,’ the principal improver and introducer
of the locomotive engine, encouraged the author to follow it by a Life
of James Watt, the principal inventor and introducer of the condensing
engine. On making inquiries, however, he found that the subject had
already been taken in hand by J. P. Muirhead, Esq., the literary executor
of the late Mr. Watt, of Aston Hall, near Birmingham. As Mr. Muirhead was
in all respects entitled to precedence, and was, moreover, in possession
of the best sources of information, the author’s contemplated Life of Watt
was abandoned, and he satisfied himself with embodying the substance of
the materials he had collected in a review of Mr. Muirhead’s work, which
appeared in the ‘Quarterly Review’ for July, 1858.
Having recently, however, through the kindness of M. P. W. Boulton, Esq.,
of Tew Park, Oxon, been enabled to examine the extensive collection of
documents brought from Soho, including the original correspondence between
Watt and Small, between Watt and Boulton, and between the latter and his
numerous intimate friends and business correspondents, it has appeared
to the author that, notwithstanding the valuable publications of Mr.
Muirhead, the story of the life of Watt is one that will well bear to be
told again, in connexion with the life and labours of Matthew Boulton of
Soho. The two men were so intimately related during the most important
period of their lives, and their biographies so closely intermingle, that
it is almost impossible to separate them. They are therefore treated
conjointly in the present volume, under the title of ‘Boulton and
Watt,’ the name of the old Soho firm which so long enjoyed a world-wide
reputation. But though the name of Boulton takes priority in the title,
that of Watt will be found in many respects the most prominent in the
narrative.
The MS. papers which have been consulted for the purposes of the present
volume are of an unusually complete and varied character. They consist
of several thousand documents selected from the tons of business books
and correspondence which had accumulated at Soho. The most important
were selected and arranged by the late M. Robinson Boulton, Esq., who
entertained the highest regard for his father's memory; and, from the
character of the collection, the author inclines to the opinion that
it must have been made with a view to the preparation and publication
of a Life of Matthew Boulton,--which has not, however, until now been
undertaken. Thus, among sundry papers endorsed “M. Boulton--Biographical
Memoirs,” is found a MS. memoir in the handwriting of James Watt, entitled
“Memorandum concerning Mr. Boulton, commencing with my first acquaintance
with him,” and another of a similar character, by Mr. James Keir,--both
written shortly after Mr. Boulton’s death. Another collection, endorsed
“Familiarum Epistolæ et Selectæ, 1755 to 1808,” contains letters received
from various distinguished personages in the course of Mr. Boulton’s
long and interesting career. The number of original documents is indeed
so large, that, but for a rigid exclusion of non-essential matter, these
Lives must have expanded into several volumes, instead of being compressed
into one. But the author believes labour to be well bestowed in practising
the art of condensation, and that the interest of biography gains much by
judicious rejection. What Watt said to Murdock as to the production of
a machine, holds equally true as to the production of a book,--“It is a
great thing,” said Watt, “to know what to do without.”
Besides the memoirs of Boulton and Watt, which occupy the principal places
in the following volume, it will also be found to contain memoirs of the
other inventors who have at various times laboured at the invention and
application of the steam-engine,--of the Marquis of Worcester, Dionysius
Papin, Thomas Savery, and Thomas Newcomen. The author has also been
enabled to gather from the Boulton papers a memoir of William Murdock,
which probably contains all that is likely to be collected respecting that
excellent and most ingenious mechanic.
In addition to the essential assistance received from M. P. W. Boulton,
Esq., in preparing the present book, without which it would not have been
undertaken, the author desires to record his acknowledgments to J. W.
Gibson Watt, Esq., for information relative to James Watt;--to Charles
Savery, Esq., Clifton, J. T. Savery, Esq., Modbury, Lieutenant-Colonel
Yolland, R.E., and Quartermaster Connolly, R.E., for various facts as
to the family history and professional career of Thomas Savery, inventor
of the “Fire Engine;”--and to Thomas Pemberton, Esq., Heathfield; W. C.
Aitkin, Esq., Coventry; George Williamson, Esq., Greenock; the late J.
Murdock, Esq., Handsworth; and the late Mr. William Buckle, of the Royal
Mint, formerly of Soho,--for various information as to the lives and
labours of Boulton and Watt.
In his treatment of the subject, it will be observed that the author has
endeavoured, as much as possible, to avoid introducing technical details
relating to the steam-engine. Those who desire further information
on such points, are referred to the works of Farey, Tredgold, Bourne,
Scott Russell, Muirhead (‘Mechanical Inventions of James Watt’), and
other technical treatises on the subject, where they will find detailed
particulars of the various inventions which are only incidentally referred
to in the following pages.
_London, October, 1865._
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Anecdote of Matthew Boulton and George III.--Roger Bacon on steam
power--Early inventors, their steam machines and apparatus--Hero
of Alexandria, Branca, De Caus--The Marquis of Worcester--His
water-works--His imprisonment--His difficulties--The
water-commanding engine--His “Century of Inventions”--Obscurity
of descriptions of his steam-engine--Persevering struggles--His
later years and death Page 1–26
CHAPTER II.
Zeal of the Marchioness of Worcester--Sir Samuel Morland--His
pumps and fire-engines--His privations and death--Dr.
Dionysius Papin--His digester--Experiments on the power of
steam--His steam-engine--Proposed steamboat--Early schemes
of paddle-boats--Blasco Garay--Papin’s model engine and
boat--Destroyed by boatmen--Papin’s death 27–38
CHAPTER III.
Thomas Savery--The Savery family--Savery’s mechanical experiments
and contrivances--His paddle-boat--Treatise on ‘Navigation
Improved’--Cornish mines and the early pumping machinery--Savery’s
“Fire-engine”--Exhibition of his model--Explanations in the
‘Miner’s Friend’--The engine tried in Cornwall--Its failure at
Broadwaters, Staffordshire--Savery’s later years--His death and
testament 39–58
CHAPTER IV.
Slow progress in invention of the steam-engine--Thomas Newcomen
of Dartmouth--His study of steam-power--Correspondence with Dr.
Hooke of the Royal Society--Newcomen’s experiments--Assisted
by John Calley--Newcomen’s atmospheric engine--Newcomen and
Calley erect their first engine--Humphrey Potter the turn-cock
boy’s contrivance--Engines erected at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Leeds,
and Cornwall--Wheal Fortune engine--Mr. William Lemon--Joseph
Hornblower--Jonathan Hulls and steam propulsion of ships--His
steamboat--Extended use of the Newcomen engines in Cornwall and
northern mining counties--Payne, Brindley, and Smeaton, improvers
of the steam-engine 59–76
CHAPTER V.
James Watt, his birthplace and lineage--His grandfather the
mathematician--Cartsdyke and Greenock in the last century--James
Watt’s father--His multifarious occupations--His mother--Watt’s
early years--His fragile constitution--Sent to school--His first
visit to Glasgow--His indulgence in storytelling--His boyish
ingenuity--His home education--The Stuart rebellion--Watt’s love
of scientific pursuits--Sent to Glasgow to learn the trade of
mathematical-instrument maker 77–95
CHAPTER VI.
Glasgow in 1754--The Glasgow tobacco lords--The early clubs,
and social habits of the merchants--Watt’s master--Leaves
Glasgow, and proceeds to London on horseback--Is placed with
a mathematical-instrument maker--His progress in learning the
trade--Frugal living in London--Danger from pressgangs--His
infirm health--Returns to Scotland--Refused permission to begin
business in Glasgow--Gains asylum in the College--His workshop
there--Makes musical instruments--His various reading and
studies--Intercourse with the professors--Intimate relations of
Watt with Robison--Robison’s estimate of Watt 96–116
CHAPTER VII.
Robison and Watt’s conferences on the power of steam--Dr. Black
and latent heat--Watt’s experiments on steam--His apparatus--The
college model of the Newcomen engine arrives from London--Watt’s
experiments upon it--His difficulties and perseverance--His
instrument-making business improves--Takes a partner and opens
a shop in the Salt Market--His marriage--Continued experiments
on steam--His Sunday walk on Glasgow Green, and his first idea
of the condensing engine--His experiments with the model, and
successive difficulties--Anecdote of Watt and Robison and the
new apparatus--The model engine--Removes to a cellar and erects
a working engine--Mechanical and financial difficulties 118–137
CHAPTER VIII.
Watt’s introduction to Dr. Roebuck--Begins business as
surveyor--Surveys canals--Partnership with Roebuck in the
engine--Difficulties in constructing the engine--Watt’s visit to
Kinneil--A patent determined on--Watt’s despondency--Continues
his improvements--Learns German--Correspondence with Dr.
Small--Specification of patent lodged--Watt erects a trial
engine--The washhouse behind Kinneil--The engine completed--Its
defects--Roebuck’s embarrassments--Watt accepts engagement to
superintend canal works--Employed in various surveys--Designs
Hamilton Bridge--Supplies plans for dock and pier at Port Glasgow
and harbour at Ayr--Illness and death of Mrs. Watt--Dr. Roebuck’s
ruin--Turning point in Watt’s fortunes 138–158
CHAPTER IX.
Birmingham in early times--Its industry--Roads--William Hutton--The
Boulton family--Matthew Boulton begins business--His trade
correspondence--His marriage--His love of business--Snow-hill
and Soho--Partnership with Fothergill--Aims at excellence
in his productions--Emulates Wedgwood--Surpasses French
art-manufacturers--His royal and noble patrons--Employs the
best artists--Visits of foreigners at Soho--Extension of
business--Promotes canals--His vast business--Commercial
panic--Boulton’s scientific pursuits 161–181
CHAPTER X.
Water- and horse-power at Soho--Boulton’s correspondence
with Benjamin Franklin concerning fire-engine--Boulton’s
model--Correspondence with Dr. Darwin and Dr. Roebuck--Watt
visits Soho--First meeting of Boulton and Watt--Correspondence
of Boulton and Watt, and of Dr. Small and Watt--Dr. Roebuck
visits Boulton--Watt’s anxiety for Boulton to join him--Watt’s
discouragements--His continued experiments and their failure--Watt
engineer for the Monkland Canal--Commercial panic--Watt loses
employment as canal engineer--Roebuck’s failure--Terms of proposed
partnership between Watt, Small, and Boulton--Roebuck’s share in
Watt’s engine transferred to Boulton--Watt’s arrival at
Birmingham 182–198
CHAPTER XI.
Characteristics of Matthew Boulton--Contrast between him and
Watt--Boulton’s friends--Watt’s engine at Soho--Boulton’s
views of engine business--The Kinneil engine re-erected
at Soho--Works successfully--Inquiries for pumping-engines
from the mining districts--Proposed extension of patent by
an Act--Watt in London--Death of Dr. Small--Watt invited to
Russia--Application to Parliament for extension of engine
patent--Application opposed--Watt’s arguments--Act obtained--Watt
returns to Birmingham--The manufacture of engines begun--The
Wilkinsons--First iron vessel 199–213
CHAPTER XII.
Watt’s house, Harper’s Hill--First order for engines--Boulton’s
activity--The London engineers prophesy the failure of Watt’s
engine--Watt revisits Glasgow--His second marriage--Terms of
partnership between Boulton and Watt--Orders from Scotland for
engines--Boulton pressed with work and anxiety--Watt returns
to Soho with his wife--Order for engine for Tingtang and
Chacewater mines, Cornwall--Watt and the Shadwell Waterworks
Committee--Stratford-le-Bow engine--Difficulties with workmen at
Soho, and with unskilled enginemen--Expansive working 214–229
CHAPTER XIII.
Inefficiency of the Newcomen pumping-engines--More orders from
Cornwall--Watt in Cornwall--United Mines district--Mines
drowned--Watt and Jonathan Hornblower--Mrs. Watt’s
account of Cornwall--Chacewater engine finished--Its
successful working--Watt’s embarrassments and financial
difficulties--Boulton’s courage and perseverance, and
Fothergill’s despondency--Fire at Soho--Engine royalty on
savings of fuel--Altercations with adventurers--Watt’s frequent
calls for Boulton’s help--Boulton’s harassments--Proceeds to
Cornwall--Watt’s return to Birmingham--His despondency--Boulton
sustains the firm--Orders for engines from abroad--William
Murdock, his excellencies of character and ability--First
interview with Boulton and engagement--Sent to Cornwall--His
mode of dealing with the captains--Watt’s altercations with the
Cornishmen--His reliance on Boulton--Altercation with
Trevithick 230–260
CHAPTER XIV.
Lieutenant Henderson in Cornwall--Boulton’s financial embarrassments
increase--Boulton and Fothergill--The “Soho pictures”--Watt’s
letter-copying machine--Boulton pushes the machine--Demand for
copying-presses--More financial difficulties--Watt’s sufferings
and melancholy--More Cornish engines wanted--Engine-dues--Boulton
cheers Watt--Mining adventurers’ meetings--Boulton and
Watt take shares--The mines--Boulton organises the mining
business--Boulton’s house at Cosgarne, Cornwall--Mrs. Watt
describes her husband’s miseries and weakness--The engine
patent threatened by the Cornish men--Watt on patent right--The
Birmingham Copper Company--Boulton improves engine-boilers by
introducing tubes--His MSS. and drawings concerning mechanical
and scientific experiments--His indefatigable industry 261–284
CHAPTER XV.
Watt again visits Cornwall--Rotary motion--The crank-engine at
Soho--Theft of the invention--Matthew Washborough--Smeaton
and steam-power--Rotary-motion engine--Boulton and Watt’s
cares--Evasions of the engine patent--The Hornblowers’
engine--Watt’s new inventions--Boulton’s confidence in the
engine--Air-engine--Watt’s fears for the patent--The rotary engine
invented--New improvements introduced--The equalising beam--Watt’s
ill health and humour--Various expedients for producing circular
motion--Murdock’s sun-and-planet motion--Patent taken for the
reciprocating expansive engine--Troubles with workmen--Murdock’s
efficiency and popularity--Watt’s despondency--The firm’s London
agent’s house burnt--Gloomy prospects of the mining trade 285–316
CHAPTER XVI.
Financial position of the firm--Rotary engines for mills--Boulton’s
battles with the Cornish adventurers--His life in
Cornwall--Murdock and the miners--The Hornblowers’ engine at
Radstoke--Watt at Bristol--Major Tucker--Steam mills--Rotary
motion applied--The first rotative engines--Pumping-engines for
the Fens--Boulton’s health fails--He visits Scotland, Carron
ironworks, Lord Dundonald--His extensive correspondence--Grumbling
in Cornwall--Concessions to the miners--Press of work
at Soho--Watt’s invention of the parallel motion and the
governor--Murdock’s model locomotive--Boulton’s praise of
Murdock--More pumping-engines wanted--Boulton’s affection for his
children--Letter to his son--His scientific recreations--Domestic
enjoyment at Cosgarne 317–341
CHAPTER XVII.
Boulton’s action in commercial politics--His interview with
Pitt--Agitation against Pitt’s commercial policy--The “Irish
resolutions”--Watt on free commerce--Is opposed to political
agitation--Combination against patents--Fluctuations in the
business at Soho--Engine orders from various quarters--The
Cornish copper-miners--The Copper Company formed, and Boulton’s
part in it--Riots in Cornwall--Boulton’s life threatened--The
esteem in which he was held in Cornwall--His intimacy with
the Quakers--The Albion Mill scheme--The double-acting
engines for the mill--Ill-success of the undertaking--Albion
Mill burnt down--Demand for rotative engines--Want of
skill and misconduct of workmen--Wedgwood’s advice to
Watt--Speculativeness of Boulton--His embarrassments--Watt’s
caution in investing--Boulton’s health fails--His depressed
spirits--Generosity to Watt 342–366
CHAPTER XVIII.
Friends of Boulton and Watt--The Lunar Society--Provincial
scientific societies--Distinguished associates of the
Lunar Society--Dr. Darwin--Dr. Priestley, his gifts and
accomplishments--Josiah Wedgwood--Meetings and discussions
of the Lunar Society--Dr. Priestley’s speculations and
experiments--Composition of water, Watt and Cavendish--Bleaching
by chlorine--Sun-pictures--Saint-Fond at Birmingham, his
descriptions of Watt and Priestley--Decline of the Lunar
Society 367–385
CHAPTER XIX.
Increasing debasement of the coinage--Punishments for
counterfeiting--Birmingham coiners--Boulton refuses orders
for base money--Executes a contract for coin for the East
India Company--Applies the steam-engine to coining--Improves
the coining apparatus--Political action in relation to
base coin--Strikes model coins for inspection of the Privy
Council--Opposed by the Mint authorities--Presents model coins to
the king--Executes coinage orders for foreign governments--His
success--Medalling--Description of the Soho mint--Large
consumption of copper in coining--Threatened attack on Soho
by a mob--Boulton executes the new copper coinage for Great
Britain--Erects the new Government Mint on Tower Hill, and mints
for foreign countries--Watt’s estimate of Boulton’s improvements
in coining 386–399
CHAPTER XX.
Prosperity of Soho--Relaxed strain upon Boulton and Watt--Watt’s
pleasure tours--His interview with the king at Windsor--Matthew
Robinson Boulton, and James Watt, jun., join their fathers
in the business--Their character and attainments--Boulton
and young Watt--Young Boulton’s return from Paris--The
French revolution--The Birmingham riots--Priestley’s house
destroyed--Unpopularity of the “Philosophers”--Young Watt and
the Jacobins--Watt’s flight from Paris--Denounced by Burke--Mr.
Watt’s fear for his son’s safety--The sons join their fathers in
partnership--Important services of the young partners--Evasion of
engine-dues, resistance of the Cornish mining companies--Legal
proceedings and favourable judgments--Progress of the engine
business--William Murdock--His valuable services--His engine
improvements--Return to Soho--Invents gas-lighting--Winsor’s
wonderful schemes--Murdock’s various inventions--Substitute
for isinglass, his idea of power wasted in streets, atmospheric
railway, &c.--His death 400–433
CHAPTER XXI.
First attempts to construct steamboats--All attempts fail until
Watt’s condensing engine invented--The locomotive of Watt and
Murdock--William Symington--His model locomotive--Symington
at Edinburgh--Steam-engine for canal-boats proposed by
Symington--Miller’s paddle-boats--Symington, Miller, and
Taylor co-operate to produce a steamboat--Sir John Dalrymple’s
inquiries of Boulton on the same subject--Boulton’s
reply--Symington’s engine finished and fitted in Miller’s
boat--Successful experiment--Symington makes another engine,
further experiments--Miller applies to Boulton and Watt to join
speculation--Watt’s reply--Symington’s engine for the ‘Charlotte
Dundas’--Symington’s success frustrated--Fulton and Bell inspect
the ‘Charlotte Dundas’--Fulton’s steamboat on the Seine--His
‘Nautilus’--His application to James Watt, jun.--Boulton’s
caution, his letter to Lord Hawkesbury--Fulton orders an engine
from Soho for the ‘Clermont’--Its success--Henry Bell’s steamboat
‘Comet’--Development of steam-navigation--First rendered
practicable through Watt’s inventions 434–455
CHAPTER XXII.
Watt withdraws from Soho--Boulton continues his interest in
business--His patent for raising water--The burglary at
Soho--Sir Walter Scott and Boulton--Watt in retirement--Search
for investments--Purchases land--Makes a foreign tour--Death of
Mrs. Keir--Painful bereavements--Death of Dr. Black--Deaths of
members of the Lunar Society--Watt’s family bereavements--Watt’s
studies on the inhalation of gas--Gregory Watt, his brilliant
talents--His friendship with Humphry Davy--His excursions and
tours--His scientific pursuits--His illness and death--Davy on
Gregory’s death--Death of Professor Robison--Watt’s estimate
of Robison--Boulton’s last days, his death and funeral--His
character--Opinions of his contemporaries, Boswell and others,
concerning him--Attachment of the workmen--His Mutual Assurance
Society for the workmen--His powers of organisation--His business
qualities--His strength, courage, and perseverance in fighting the
battle of the steam-engine--Watt’s estimate of Boulton--Boulton’s
generosity 456–487
CHAPTER XXIII.
Watt’s closing years--His pursuits--His machine for copying
statuary--Medallions of his friends--His garret workshop--Mrs.
Watt’s rule over her husband--Tenacious retention of his
faculties--Is consulted by the Glasgow Waterworks Company--His
visits to Cheltenham and other places--Growth and improvement
of Glasgow--Watt’s interview with the brothers Hart--His
conversational powers--Sir Walter Scott’s panegyric on
Watt--His extensive and varied knowledge--His anecdotal
powers--Fondness for novels--Description of him by visitors
at Heathfield--His last improvements in the sculpture-copying
machine--His last illness and peaceful death--Monumental
honours--Lord Brougham’s inscription--His qualities and
genius--His modesty--His close observation--Facts and
theory--Watt and Smeaton compared--Universal application of
the steam-engine--Conclusion 488–514
INDEX 515
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PORTRAIT OF JAMES WATT _to face Title-page_
„ MATTHEW BOULTON _to face page_ 159
PAGE
Edward, second Marquis of Worcester 2
Ancient Greek Æolipile 3
Branca’s Machine 7
De Caus’s Steam Apparatus 9
Ruins of Raglan Castle 26
Dionysius Papin 31
Ancient Paddle-Boat 36
Thomas Savery 41
Section of Savery’s Paddle-Boat 43
Savery’s Fire-Engine 52
Huel Vor 55
Newcomen’s House, Dartmouth 60
Newcomen’s Atmospheric Engine 67
Ruins of Wheal Fortune 70
Polgooth 71
Jonathan Hull’s Steam-Boat 73
Dartmouth from the Harbour 76
Greenock and the Clyde, 1865 78
Greenock Harbour, 1768 79
Crawfordsburn House, Greenock 80
James Watt Tavern, Greenock 87
Trongate, Glasgow 97
Inner Quadrangle, Glasgow College 107
Isometric View of Glasgow College, 1693 108
The Broomielaw in 1760 116
Professor Robison 117
Papin’s Digester 120
The Newcomen Model 121
Watt’s House, Delftfield Lane 126
Watt’s first Improved Apparatus 130
Dr. Joseph Black 132
Kinneil House 142
Outhouse behind Kinneil 148
Hamilton Bridge 156
Port Glasgow 158
Birmingham 160
Soho Manufactory 169
Soho House 177
Watt’s House, Harper’s Hill 214
Map of United Mines District 231
Watt’s Pumping-Engine for Mines 236
Redruth, High Street 238
Cardozos Pumping-Engine 260
United Mines District and St. Day 261
Cosgarne House 275
Entrance to ditto 284
The “Waggon and Horses,” Handsworth 285
The Crank as applied in the Foot-Lathe 287
Interior of the “Waggon and Horses” 288
Old Engine-House, Dalcoath 306
Sun-and-Planet Motion 309
“Old Bess” Engine 326
The parallel Motion 334
The Governor 335
Polgooth Engine-House 339
Double Acting Engine, Albion Mill 355
Dr. Priestley 370
Site of Soho Mint 399
Burning of Dr. Priestley’s House 411
William Murdock 422
Murdock’s House, Handsworth 433
Miller’s Triple Vessel 437
Symington’s first Steamboat-Engine 441
Miller’s Experimental Steamboat 442
Machinery of the ‘Charlotte Dundas’ 447
The “Comet” passing Dumbarton 453
Watt’s House, Heathfield 456
Boulton’s Monument in Handsworth Church 478
The Garret at Heathfield 494
Water-Pipe in the Bed of the Clyde 497
Watt’s Chapel and Monument, Handsworth Church 508
Handsworth Church 514
BEGINNINGS OF THE STEAM-ENGINE:
THE EARLY INVENTORS.
[Illustration: EDWARD, SECOND MARQUIS OF WORCESTER.
[By T. D. Scott after Vandyck.]]
[Illustration: ANCIENT GREEK ÆOLIPILE.]
BEGINNINGS OF THE STEAM-ENGINE:
THE EARLY INVENTORS.
CHAPTER I.
DAWNINGS OF STEAM POWER--THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER.
When Matthew Boulton entered into partnership with James Watt, he gave
up the ormolu business in which he had before been principally engaged.
He had been accustomed to supply George III. with articles of this
manufacture, but ceased to wait upon the King for orders after embarking
in his new enterprise. Some time after, he appeared at the Royal Levee
and was at once recognised by the King. “Ha! Boulton,” said he, “it is
long since we have seen you at Court. Pray, what business are you now
engaged in?” “I am engaged, your Majesty, in the production of a commodity
which is the desire of kings.” “And what is that? what is that?” asked
the King. “POWER, your Majesty,” replied Boulton, who proceeded to give
a description of the great uses to which the steam-engine was capable of
being applied.
If the theory of James Mill[1] be true, that government is founded on
the desire which exists among men to secure and enjoy the products of
labour, by whatsoever means produced, probably the answer of Boulton
to George III. was not far from correct. In the infancy of nations this
desire manifested itself in the enforcement of labour by one class upon
another, in the various forms of slavery and serfdom. To evade the more
onerous and exhausting kinds of bodily toil, men were impelled to exercise
their ingenuity in improving old tools and inventing new ones,--while, to
increase production, they called the powers of nature to their aid. They
tamed the horse, and made him their servant; they caught the winds as they
blew, and the waters as they fell, and applied their powers to the driving
of mills and machines of various kinds.
But there was a power greater by far than that of horses, wind, or
water,--a power of which poets and philosophers had long dreamt,--capable
of being applied alike to the turning of mills, the raising of water, the
rowing of ships, the driving of wheel-carriages, and the performance of
labour in its severest forms. As early as the thirteenth century, Roger
Bacon described this great new power in terms which, interpreted by the
light of the present day, could only apply to the power of Steam. He
anticipated that “chariots may be made so as to be moved with incalculable
force, without any beast drawing them,” and that “engines of navigation
might be made without oarsmen, so that the greatest river and sea ships,
with only one man to steer them, may sail swifter than if they were fully
manned.” But Bacon was a seer rather than an expounder, a philosophic poet
rather than an inventor; and it was left to men of future times to find
out the practical methods of applying the wonderful power which he had
imagined and foretold.
[1] Article “Government,” in ‘Encyclopædia Britannica.’
The enormous power latent in water exposed to heat had long been known.
Its discovery must have been almost contemporaneous with that of fire.
The expansive force of steam would be obvious on setting the first
partially-closed pipkin upon the fire. If closed, the lid would be blown
off; and even if the vessel were of iron, it would soon burst with
appalling force. Was it possible to render so furious and apparently
unmanageable an agent, docile and tractable? Even in modern times, the
explosive force of steam could only be compared to that of gunpowder;
and it is a curious fact, that both De Hautefeuille and Papin proposed to
employ gunpowder in preference to steam in driving a piston in a cylinder,
considering it to be the more manageable power of the two.
Although it appears from the writings of the Greek physician, Hero, who
flourished at Alexandria more than a century before Christ, that steam
was well known to the ancients, it was employed by them merely as a toy,
or as a means of exciting the wonder of the credulous. In his treatise on
Pneumatics, Hero gives descriptions of various methods of employing steam
or heated air for the purpose of producing apparently magical effects;
from which we infer that the agency of heat was employed by the heathen
priests in the performance of their rites. By one of the devices which he
describes, water was apparently changed into wine; by another, the temple
doors were opened by fire placed on the sacrificial altar; while by a
third, the sacrificial vessel was so contrived as to flow only when the
money of the votary was cast into it. Another ingenious device consisted
in the method employed to pour out libations. Upon the altar-fire being
kindled, the air in the interior became expanded and, pressing upon the
surface of the liquid which it contained, forced it up a connecting-pipe,
and so out of the sacrificial cup. The libation was made, and the people
cried, “A miracle!” But Hero knew the trick, and explained the arrangement
by which it was accomplished: it forms the subject of his eleventh
theorem.
The most interesting of the other devices described by Hero is the
whirling Æolipile, or ball of Æolus, which, though but a toy, possessed
the properties of a true steam-engine, and was most probably the first
ever invented. As Hero’s book professes to be, for the most part, but
a collection of the devices handed down by former writers, and as he
does not lay claim to its invention, it is probable the Æolipile may
have been known long before his time. The machine consisted of a hollow
globe of metal, moving on its axis, and communicating with a caldron of
water placed underneath. The globe was provided with one or more tubes
projecting from it, closed at the ends, but open on one side. When a fire
was lit under the caldron, and the steam was raised, it filled the globe,
and, projecting itself against the air through the openings in the tubes,
the reactive force thus produced caused the globe to spin round upon its
axis “as if it were animated from within by a living spirit.”[2]
The mechanical means by which these various objects were accomplished,
as explained by Hero, show that the ancients were acquainted with the
ordinary expedients for communicating motion, such as the wheel and
axle, spur-wheels, toothed pinions and sectors, the lever-beam, and other
well-known expedients; while they also knew of the cylinder and piston,
the three-way cock, slide-valves and valve-clacks,[3] and many other
ingenious mechanical details which have been reinvented in modern times.
[2] The principle of the Æolipile is the same as that embodied
in Avery and Ruthven’s engines for the production of rotary
motion. “These engines,” says Bourne, “are more expensive in
steam than ordinary engines, and travel at an inconvenient
speed; but in other respects they are quite as effectual, and
their construction is extremely simple and inexpensive.”
[Illustration: BRANCA’S MACHINE.]
Hero’s book lay hidden in manuscript and buried in libraries, until the
revival of learning in Italy in the sixteenth century, when a translation
of it appeared at Bologna in 1547. By that time printing had been
invented; and the multiplication of copies being thereby rendered easy,
the book was soon brought under the notice of inquiring men throughout
Europe. The work must, indeed, have excited an extraordinary degree of
interest; in proof of which it may be mentioned that eight different
editions, in different languages, were published within a century. The
minds of the curious and the scientific were thus directed to the subject
of steam as a motive power. But for a long time they never got beyond
the idea of Hero’s Æolipile, though they endeavoured to apply the rotary
motion produced by it in different ways. Thus, a German writer suggested
that it should be used to turn spits, instead of turnspit dogs; and
Branca, the Italian architect, used the steam jet projected from a brazen
head to drive an apparatus contrived by him for pounding drugs. The jet
forced round the vanes of a wheel, so as to produce a rotary motion, and
this, being communicated to other wheels, set in motion a rod and stamper,
after the manner shown in the preceding cut.
[3] See Bennet Woodcroft’s ‘Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria,’
from the original Greek. London, 1851.
Solomon de Caus was another of the speculative inquirers whose attention
was drawn to the subject of steam by the publication of Hero’s book. De
Caus was a native of Normandy, and for some time studied the profession
of an architect in Italy; from whence he returned to France early in the
seventeenth century. Religious persecution was then raging, and, being
a Protestant, he was glad to take refuge from it in England. He entered
the service of the Prince of Wales, by whom he was for a time employed
in designing grottoes, fountains, and hydraulic ornaments for the Palace
Gardens at Richmond. While occupied in that capacity he gave lessons
in design to the Princess Elizabeth; and on her marriage to the Elector
Palatine he accompanied her to Heidelberg, to take charge of the Castle
gardens there. It was while residing at Heidelberg that De Caus wrote
his well-known book on hydraulics, which was published at Frankfort in
1615.[4]
[4] Les Raisons des Forces Mouvantes, avec diverses machines tant
utiles que plaisantes, &c., par Solomon de Caus, Ingénieur et
Architecte du Roy. Frankfort, 1615.
One of De Caus’s expedients for raising water consisted of an apparatus in
which he proposed to employ the expansive power of steam for the purpose.
In Hero’s book it is shown how a column of water may be thrown up by means
of compressed air; and De Caus merely proposed to employ steam instead of
air. His apparatus was very simple. It consisted of a spherical vessel
fitted with two pipes, one of them provided with a cock and funnel; the
other, which reached down to near the bottom of the vessel, being open at
the top to the external air. When the vessel was filled with water and
a fire lit underneath, the water was forced up the open tube in a jet,
greater or less in proportion to the elasticity of the steam. When both
tubes were tightly closed, so that neither steam nor water could escape,
the heat, says De Caus, would shortly cause a compression from within so
violent that “the ball will burst in pieces, with a noise like a petard.”
[Illustration: DE CAUS’S STEAM APPARATUS.]
It will be observed that there was little mechanical contrivance, and
no practical use in this apparatus; it merely furnished an illustration
of the extraordinary force of pent-up steam, and that was all. Though
De Caus made many experiments with his steam-vessel, he never succeeded
in making--if, indeed, he ever attempted to make--a working steam-engine
of any kind. It is not improbable that he was dismayed, as others were,
by the apparent violence of the imprisoned monster; and it needed a more
ingenious head than his to contrive a method of rendering him docile, and
making him go quietly in harness.[5]
[5] De Caus eventually returned to France, and was appointed
engineer to the King. During the later years of his life he
was employed in carrying out plans for the better supply of
Paris with water. The story so often told of De Caus having
been shut up in the Bicêtre turns out to be a fiction. Though
a Huguenot, he was not persecuted by Richelieu, but was, on
the contrary, employed by him; and in 1624 he dedicated to
that prelate his treatise entitled ‘Horologes Solitaires.’ Mr.
Charles Read, editor of several interesting memoirs of early
French Protestants, has recently brought to light and published
in the ‘Gazette des Tribunaux’ the proofs of the patronage of
De Caus by Richelieu, and reproduced the original documents,
which he discovered slumbering in the dust of the State Records
at Paris. In 1621 De Caus is found proposing to Louis XIII. to
adopt measures for cleansing Paris and the faubourgs of dirt and
uncleanness, by a system of reservoirs established at elevated
points, and by fountains at various places which he indicated.
The king and his council sent the propositions to the chief
magistrate of Paris, and Mr. Read transcribes the deliberation
which took place on the subject at the City Council, as handed
down in the records deposited in the Imperial Archives. De Caus
died at Paris, and was buried in the church of La Trinité in
February, 1626.
It is probable that the first contriver of a working steam-engine was
Edward, second Marquis of Worcester, one of the first and most illustrious
of a long line of unfortunate inventors. The career of that nobleman--born
though he was to high rank and great estate--was chequered and sad in no
ordinary degree. Edward Somerset was the eldest son of Henry Lord Herbert,
afterwards Earl of Worcester, and consequently heir to that title. He was
born in London in 1601. His early years were principally spent at Raglan
Castle, his father’s country seat, where his education was carefully
attended to. In the course of his pupilage he made occasional visits to
the continent, accompanied by his tutor, for the purpose of acquiring
that degree of polish and culture considered necessary for a person of
his social position. On the accession of his father to the Earldom of
Worcester, in 1627, Edward became Lord Herbert by courtesy; and in the
following year he married, and went to reside at Raglan Castle.
From an early period of his life Lord Herbert took especial pleasure in
mechanical studies, and in the course of his foreign tours he visited and
examined the famous works of construction abroad; for as yet there were
none such in England. On settling down at Raglan, he proceeded to set
up a laboratory, or workshop, wherein to indulge his mechanical tastes,
and perhaps to while away the tedium of a country life. To assist him in
his labours, he engaged a clever foreign mechanic, named Caspar Kaltoff,
who remained in his service for many years, and materially helped him in
his various contrivances. Among the works executed by Lord Herbert and
his assistant at Raglan, was the hydraulic apparatus by means of which
the castle was supplied with water. From an incidental reference to the
“water-works” by a contemporary writer, we learn that they consisted of a
series of engines and wheels, by means of which water was raised through
pipes to a cistern placed on the summit of the central tower.[6] It is
probable that the planning and construction of these works induced Lord
Herbert to prosecute the study of hydraulics, and to enter upon that
series of experiments as to the power of steam which eventually led to
the contrivance of his “Water-commanding Engine.”
In pursuits and studies such as these, Lord Herbert spent about seven
years at Raglan Castle. But his wife dying in 1635, the place became
connected in his mind with too painful associations, and he shortly after
left it to reside in London. On his arrival there, he proceeded to put to
the practical test a plan of perpetual motion which he had long studied,
and now thought he had brought to perfection. He accordingly had his
self-moving wheel[7] set up in the Tower; but though it moved, its motion
did not prove perpetual, and it shortly dropped out of sight, to be no
more heard of.
[6] Dr. Bayly, in his ‘Apothegms’ (1682), p. 87, describes the
fright given to some Puritan visitors on the occasion of their
searching Raglan Castle for arms, the Marquis of Worcester
being a known Papist. “Having carried them up and down the
castle, his lordship at length brought them over a high bridge
that arched over the moat between the castle and the great
tower, wherein the Lord Herbert had lately contrived certain
water-works, which, when the several engines and wheels were set
agoing, much quantity of water through the hollow conveyances
of the aqueducts was to be let down from the top of an high
tower.” When all was ready for the surprise, the water was let
in, and it made such a hideous and fearful noise by reason of
the hollowness of the tower, and the neighbouring echoes of
the castle, that the men stood amazed and terror-struck. At
this point up came a man staring and running, who exclaimed,
“Look to yourselves, my masters, for the lions are got loose.”
Whereupon the Puritans fled down the narrow staircase in such
haste that they lost footing and fell, tumbling one over the
other, and never halted until they had got the castle out of
sight. Mr. Dircks, in his able and exhaustive ‘Life, Times, and
Scientific Labours of the Marquis of Worcester,’ London, 1865,
says that this hydraulic apparatus “probably depended for its
operation on the influence of heat from burning fuel acting on
a suitably constructed boiler, and so arranged as to be able
to apply the expansive force of steam to the driving of water
through vertical pipes to a considerable elevation.” But it does
not seem to us that the facts stated are sufficient to warrant
this assumption.
[7] Mr. Dircks says “it was a machine consisting of a wheel 14
feet in diameter, carrying forty weights of forty pounds each,
and is supposed to have rotated on an axle supported on two
pillars or upright frames,” as indicated in the ‘Century of
Inventions,’ Art. 56.
After the lapse of four years, Lord Herbert again married, taking to
wife the Lady Margaret, second daughter of the Earl of Thomond. In the
year after his second marriage, the celebrated Long Parliament began
its sittings. Questions of great public import were agitating the minds
of thinking men, and the nation was gradually becoming divided into two
hostile parties, soon to be arrayed against each other in deadly strife. A
Royalist and a Roman Catholic like his father, Lord Herbert at once ranged
himself on the side of the King. On the outbreak of the Civil War, we find
both father and son actively employed in mustering forces, and preparing
to hold the western counties against the Parliament. Raglan Castle was
strongly garrisoned, and fortifications were thrown up around it, so as
to render it secure against assault. The Earl, now Marquis of Worcester,
was appointed Generalissimo of the Western Forces, while his son, Lord
Herbert, was made General of South Wales. From this office he was shortly
after called by the King, who, creating him Earl of Glamorgan, despatched
him on a mission to Ireland, with the object of stirring up the loyalists
of that kingdom, and inducing them to come to his help. This delicate
office he is said to have performed with more zeal than discretion.
Indeed, the studious habits of his early life must in a measure have
unfitted him for the conduct of so important an affair; and the bungle
he made of it was such that the King felt himself under the necessity of
repudiating the acts which the Earl had done in his name.
It is unnecessary that we should follow the fortunes of the house of
Raglan in the course of the civil war. Suffice it to say that the King’s
cause was utterly lost; that Raglan Castle was besieged, taken, and
dismantled; that the Marquis of Worcester, having advanced to the King
at different times as much as 122,500_l._, had completely impoverished
himself; and that when the Earl succeeded to his father’s title, and
became second Marquis of Worcester, in 1646, he inherited an exhausted
exchequer, a confiscated estate, and a ruined home. The services he
had rendered to the King were remembered against him; and to escape the
vengeance of his political enemies he took refuge in France. There he
lived in poverty and in exile for a period of about five years. At length,
drawn to England by the powerful attractions of wife and family, and
probably also commissioned to perform a service for the exiled Charles
II., the Marquis secretly visited London in 1655, where he was shortly
after detected, apprehended, and imprisoned in the Tower. He sought
and found solace, during his confinement, in study and contemplation,
reverting to his early experiments in mechanics; and he occupied the long
and weary hours in committing to paper descriptions of his many ingenious
devices, which he afterwards published in his ‘Century of Inventions.’ The
Marquis’s old and skilled mechanic, Caspar Kaltoff, continued faithful to
him in his adversity, and was permitted to hold free communication with
him; from which we infer that his imprisonment was not of a very rigid
character.
After lying in the Tower for about two years, the Marquis was liberated
on bail, in October, 1654, when he proceeded to take steps to erect his
long-contemplated Water-commanding Engine. Even while a prisoner, we find
him negotiating with the then owner of Vauxhall for its purchase, with
a view to the establishment there of a school of skilled industry; thus
anticipating by nearly two centuries the School of Mines and Manufactures
at South Kensington. In the month preceding his enlargement we find
Hartlib writing to the Hon. Robert Boyle,--“The Earl of Worcester is
buying Fauxhall from Mr. Trenchard, to bestow the use of that house upon
Caspar Calchoff and his son as long as they shall live, for he intends to
make it a College of Artizans.”[8] His main difficulty, however, consisted
in raising the necessary means for carrying his excellent project into
effect. He was, indeed, so reduced in his circumstances as to be under
the necessity of petitioning his political enemies for the bare means
of living; and we find Cromwell, in the course of the year following his
liberation from prison, issuing a warrant for the payment to him of three
pounds a week “for his better maintenance.” The Marquis also tried the
experiment of levying contributions from his friends; but they were, for
the most part, as poor as himself. He next tried the wealthy men of the
Parliamentary party, and succeeded in obtaining several advances of money
from Colonel Copley, who took an active interest in the prosecution of
various industrial undertakings.[9] The following letter from the Marquis
to Copley shows the straits to which he was reduced:--
“DEAR FRIEND,--I knowe not with what face to desire a curtesie
from you, since I have not yet payed you the five powndes, and
the mayne businesse soe long protracted, whereby my reality and
kindnesse should with thankfullnesse appeare; for though the
least I intende you is to make up the somme already promised to
a thousand powndes yearly, or a share ammounting to four more,
which, to nominate before the perfection of the woorke, were but
an _individuum vagum_, and, therefore, I deferre it, and upon
noe other score. Yet in this interim, my disappointments are soe
great, as that I am forced to begge, if you could possible, eyther
to helpe me with tenne powndes to this bearer, or to make use of
the coache, and to goe to Mr. Clerke, and if he could this day
help me to fifty powndes, then to paye your selfe the five powndes
I owe you out of them. The Alderman has taken three days’ time
to consider of it. Pardon the great trouble I give you, which I
doubt not but in time to deserve, by really appearing
“Your most thankfull friend,
“WORCESTER.
“_28th March, 1656._
“To my honoured friend, Collonel CHRISTOPHER COPPLEY, these.”
The original of this letter is endorsed “My Lord of Worcester’s letter
about my share in his engine,” from which it would appear that the Marquis
induced his friends to advance him money on the promise of a certain
proportion of shares in the undertaking. He also pressed his invention
upon the notice of Government, representing that he was in a position
to do his Highness the Protector “more service than any one subject of
his three nations.” But neither the Protector nor his Ministers took any
further notice of the Marquis or his project. It is probable that they
regarded him as a bore, and his water-commanding engine as the mere dream
of a projector.
[8] ‘Weld’s Royal Society,’ i. 53.
[9] ‘Industrial Biography,’ p. 57.
The Marquis himself continued to be as confident as ever of the ultimate
success of his scheme. He believed that it would yet realise him an
immense fortune. Writing of the engine to the Earl of Lotherdale, he
described it as “the greatest invention for profit that I ever yet heard
of vouchsafed to a man, especially so unworthy and ignorant as I am.” But
the Marquis was not so humble as he affected to be, believing in his heart
that he had invented, without exception, the most wonderful machine of
the age. Still it remained a mere project. Without the means of erecting
an engine, it promised to remain such; and all his efforts to raise the
necessary funds had thus far proved unavailing.
The Restoration of Charles II., in 1660, revived his hopes. Now that the
King enjoyed his own again, the Marquis believed that he, too, would come
into possession of the means for carrying out his project. For thirteen
years he had lived in exile, in prison, and in poverty: but brighter days
had dawned at last; and he indulged in the hope that compensation would
at length be made to him for his sufferings in the cause of the Stuarts,
and that he would now bask in the sunshine of Royal favour. He made all
haste to represent his case to the king, and to claim restitution for his
heavy losses in the late war. But there were thousands of like suppliants
all over the kingdom, and redress came slowly. The Marquis was, however,
shortly put in possession of such parts of his estates as had not been
sold by the Protector; but he found them for the most part cleared of
their timber, and comparatively valueless. The castle at Raglan was in
ruins. He himself was heavily burdened with debt, and his creditors were
becoming increasingly importunate for money. It was thus long before he
could shake himself clear of his embarrassments, and devote himself to the
great object of his life, the prosecution of his water-commanding engine.
One of his first cares, on the partial recovery of his property,
was to obtain a legal protection for his inventions; and in the year
following the Restoration we find him taking out a patent for four of his
schemes,--a watch or clock, guns or pistols, an engine to give security
to a coach, and a boat to sail against wind and tide. In the session of
Parliament, 1662–3, he obtained an Act securing to himself the profits
of the water-commanding engine. About the same time he gave to the world
his famous ‘Century,’[10] which contains his own account of his various
inventions. In the second dedication of the book to the members of both
Houses of Parliament he states that he had already expended the large sum
of 10,000_l._ on experiments; but he professed that he esteemed himself
sufficiently rewarded by the passing of “the Act of the Water-commanding
Engine,” and, his debts once paid, he intended to devote the rest of
his life to the service of his King and country. The ‘Century’ is a mere
summary of things alleged to have been tried and perfected, conveyed in
vague and mysterious language, and calculated rather to excite wonder
than to furnish information. The descriptions were unaccompanied by plans
or drawings, so that we can only surmise the means by which he proposed
to carry his schemes into effect. It is possible that he purposely left
the descriptions of his inventions vague, in order that he might not
be anticipated in their application; for it is certain that at the time
the book was written the Marquis had not taken out his first patent, nor
obtained the Act securing to him the profits of his engine.
[10] ‘A Century of the Names and Scantlings of such Inventions
as at present I can call to mind to have tried and perfected,
which (my former Notes being lost) I have, at the instance of
a powerful Friend, endeavoured now, in the year 1655, to set
these down in such a way as may sufficiently instruct me to put
any of them in practice.’ London, 1663.
There can, however, be no doubt that, vague and mysterious though the
‘Scantlings’ be, they indicate a knowledge of mechanical principles
considerably in advance of the age, as well as a high degree of
mechanical ingenuity. The hundred Articles into which the book is divided
contain suggestions, in shorthand descriptions, of things so various
as ship-destroying machines, telegraphs, combination and escutcheon
locks,[11] improvements in fire-arms, universal alphabets, seals and
watches, various kinds of cipher, a boat rowing against wind and tide,
automata, and mechanical appliances of different kinds, including
the “stupendious and semi-omnipotent” engine. Some of them read like
descriptions of conjuring tricks, such as the artificial bird, the hour
water-ball, the flying man, the brazen head, the dicing-box, and various
automata. Others are full of prophetic insight, and contain anticipations
of mechanical marvels, which, however wonderful they may at that time
have appeared, have since been fully realised. The style in which the
treatise was written, however, presented so remarkable a contrast to the
contemporary writings of Newton, Boyle, Pascal, Guericke, and others,
that it is not improbable it had the effect of prejudicing the minds of
scientific men against the writer, and led them to regard his schemes
as those of a wild projector, and hence to treat his propositions with
neglect, if not with contumely.
[11] The writer of the elaborate article “Lock,” in the supplement
to the ‘Penny Cyclopædia’ (ii. 217), in describing the
_combination lock_, says: “The Marquis of Worcester, in whose
‘Century of Inventions’ several different kinds of lock, which
lay claim to the most marvellous properties, are enumerated,
would appear, from his 72nd article, to have devised an
improvement on this apparatus; as he refers to ‘an escutcheon
to be placed before any of these locks,’ one of the properties
of which he describes as being that ‘the owner, though a woman,
may, with her delicate hand, vary the ways of coming to open
the lock ten millions of times beyond the knowledge of the
smith that made it, or of me who invented it.’ The details
of this invention are not given; but in the third volume of
the ‘Transactions of the Society of Arts,’ pp. 160–5, is an
escutcheon of similar character, invented by Mr. Marshall, and
rewarded by the Society in 1784. The details of this ingenious
contrivance are fully given in the volume referred to.”
So soon as the Marquis had become possessed of the requisite funds, he
proceeded to erect an engine at Vauxhall to illustrate the uses of his
principal invention. He was assisted, as before, by his old workman,
Caspar Kaltoff. It is probable that the engine was erected by the
beginning of 1663; for in the course of that year M. Sorbière paid his
visit to England, and found the Marquis’s “hydraulic machine” at work.
He describes it as capable of raising, by the strength of one man only,
within a minute of time, four large buckets of water to a height of forty
feet, through a pipe eight inches in diameter. He proceeds to compare
it with another machine at Somerset House, worked by one or two horses,
which he considers the more effective machine of the two.[12] This account
of the Marquis’s invention is confirmed by another brief description of
it, which occurs in the narrative of the travels of Cosmo, Grand Duke
of Tuscany, in England, some years later. Count Magalotti, the narrator,
says, “It raises water more than forty geometrical feet, by the power of
one man only; and in a very short space of time will draw up four vessels
of water through a tube or channel not more than a span in width, on
which account it is considered to be of greater service to the public than
the other machine at Somerset House.” It will thus be observed that the
Duke’s secretary entertained a different opinion from that expressed by
M. Sorbière as to the comparative merits of the two engines spoken of.
[12] His words are these:--“One of the most curious things that
I wished to see was an hydraulic machine which the Marquis of
Worcester has invented, and of which he is making trial. I went
with all speed to Fox-hall, on the other side of the Thames, a
little below Lambeth, which is the Palace of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, in sight of London. This machine will raise to the
height of forty feet, by the strength of one man only, and in a
minute of time, four large buckets of water through a pipe of
eight inches. But what will be the most powerful help to the
wants of the public is the work which is performed by another
ingeniously-constructed machine, which can be seen raised on a
wooden tower on the top of Somerset House, which supplies that
part of the town with water, but with some difficulty, and a
smaller quantity than could be desired. It is somewhat like our
Samaritane water-work on the Pont Neuf; and on the raising-pump
they have added an impulsion which increases the force; but for
what we obtain by the power of the Seine, they employ one or two
horses, which incessantly turn the machine, as the river changes
its course twice a day, and the spring or wheels which are
used for the ebbing tide would not do for the flow.”--Sorbière,
‘Relation d’un Voyage en Angleterre.’
It is worthy of remark that the incidental accounts of these two
foreigners contain almost the only contemporary information we possess
as to the character of the Marquis’s invention. English writers of the
time are almost entirely silent about it; and when Dr. Hooke, the learned
Secretary of the Royal Society, refers to the contrivance, it is in a
tone of ridicule rather than of praise. Writing to Mr. Boyle, in 1667,
he characterises the definition or description of the water-commanding
engine as “so purely romantic that it would serve one rarely to fill up
half a dozen pages in the ‘History of Fortunatus his Wishing Cap.’” ... “I
was,” he adds, “since my return to London to see this engine, when I found
Caltrop [Kaltoff], his chief engineer, to laugh at it; and as far as I was
able to see it, it seemed one of the perpetual-motion fallacies; of which
kind Caltrop himself, and two or three others that I know, are labouring
at this time in vain to make, but after several ways; and nothing but
costly experience will make them desist.”[13]
[13] The Works of the Hon. Robert Boyle, v. 532.
It is difficult to gather from the statements of Sorbière and Cosmo de
Medici what was the precise nature of the Marquis’s hydraulic apparatus.
There is no mention whatever of steam, either in their accounts or in that
of Dr. Hooke; but the latter does not seem to have been allowed to examine
the details of the machine. From the mention by Sorbière of the “four
large buckets of water,” and by Cosmo’s secretary, of “four vessels of
water,” it might possibly have been only an improved hydraulic apparatus,
worked by a man instead of a horse. In order, therefore, to obtain a clue
to the real nature of the machine we find it necessary to resort to the
Marquis’s ‘Scantlings’ for his own account of its action, and we find it
in article No. 68, which runs as follows:--
“68. An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by
fire, not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for that must be as
the Philosopher calleth it, _Intra sphæram activitatis_, which
is but at such a distance. But this way hath no Bounder, if the
Vessels be strong enough; for I have taken a piece of a whole
Cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it three-quarters
full of water, stopping and scruing up the broken end; as also
the Touch-hole; and making a constant fire under it, within
twenty-four hours it burst and made a great crack: So that having
a way to make my Vessels, so that they are strengthened by the
force within them, and the one to fill after the other, I have
seen the water run like a constant Fountaine-stream forty foot
high; one Vessel of water rarified by fire driveth up forty of
cold water. And a man that tends the work is but to turn two
Cocks, that one Vessel of water being consumed, another begins to
force and refill with cold water, and so successively, the fire
being tended and kept constant, which the self-same Person may
likewise abundantly perform in the interim between the necessity
of turning the said Cocks.”
From this account we gather that the Marquis had contrived a plan for
raising water by the expansive force of steam, after the manner of De
Caus, but with important modifications and improvements. It had obviously
occurred to him, that by generating the steam in a separate vessel,
and conveying it by means of a suitable pipe to a second closed vessel,
he could thereby make it expel the water which the latter contained by
pressing upon its surface, as in De Caus’s apparatus. The admission of
the steam could easily be regulated by the turning of two cocks; one to
admit the steam from the boiler, and the other to allow the exit of the
water. On the expulsion of the water, and the production of a vacuum by
the condensation of the contained steam, the empty vessel would at once be
refilled by the action of the atmospheric pressure on the surface of the
water to be raised. It is probable that this engine was--in the absence of
a feed-pump, of which there is no mention--provided with two boilers as
well as with the two cisterns in which the “forcing and refilling” went
on, so as to maintain the “constant fountain-stream” which the Marquis
describes. But the precise arrangement of parts by which he accomplished
this object must ever remain a matter of mere conjecture.
We have other distinct indications of a steam-engine in the Marquis’s
98th, 99th, and 100th Articles, which ought to be read in connection with
the 68th Article: they run as follows:--
“98. An Engine so contrived, that working the _Primum mobile_
forward or backward, upward or downward, circularly or cornerwise,
to and fro, streight, upright or downright, yet the pretended
Operation continueth, and advanceth none of the motions
above-mentioned, hindering, much less stopping the other; but
unanimously, and with harmony agreeing they all augment and
contribute strength unto the intended work and operation: And
therefore I call this _A Semi-omnipotent Engine_, and do intend
that a Model thereof be buried with me.”
“99. How to make one pound weight to raise an hundred as high as
one pound falleth, and yet the hundred pound descending doth what
nothing less than one hundred pound can effect.”
“100. Upon so potent a help as these two last-mentioned
Inventions a Waterwork is by many years experience and labour so
advantageously by me contrived, that a Child’s force bringeth
up an hundred foot high an incredible quantity of water, even
two foot Diameter, so naturally, that the work will not be heard
even into the next Room; and with so great ease and Geometrical
Symmetry, that though it work day and night from one end of the
year to the other, it will not require forty shillings reparation
to the whole Engine, nor hinder ones day-work. And I may boldly
call it _The most stupendious Work in the whole world_: not
onely with little charge to drein all sorts of Mines, and furnish
Cities with water, though never so high seated, as well to keep
them sweet, running through several streets, and so performing
the work of Scavengers, as well as furnishing the Inhabitants
with sufficient water for their private occasions; but likewise
supplying Rivers with sufficient to maintaine and make them
portable from Towne to Towne, and for the bettering of Lands all
the way it runs; with many more advantageous, and yet greater
effects of Profit, Admiration, and Consequence. So that deservedly
I deem this Invention to crown my Labours, to reward my Expences,
and make my Thoughts acquiesce in way of further Inventions: This
making up the whole Century, and preventing any further trouble to
the Reader for the present, meaning to leave to Posterity a Book,
wherein under each of these Heads the means to put in execution
and visible trial all and every of these Inventions, with the
shape and form of all things belonging to them, shall be Printed
by Brass-plates.”
The promised book was never written, and we are accordingly left in
uncertainty as to the precise character of the Marquis’s inventions. That
he had a full conviction of the great powers of steam, as well as of its
manageability and extensive practical uses, is sufficiently clear; but
that he ever erected any engines after the plans thus summarily described
is matter of considerable doubt. It is remarkable that, notwithstanding
the number and variety of his suggested inventions, not a single model
or machine constructed by the Marquis or his skilled workmen has been
preserved. Mr. Dircks, who has collected and published all that is
likely to be brought to light relative to the life and works of the
Marquis, and has laboured at his task with a rare love and enthusiasm
for his subject, naturally expresses surprise that “none of the many
cabinets of the curious seem to have possessed any model or work of his
production; not even the indefatigable Tradescant, although his museum
was at Lambeth.”[14] But it is probable, as we have already observed,
that the Marquis’s ‘Scantlings,’ notwithstanding his statement that he
had “tried and perfected” the inventions of which he speaks, were rather
the foreshadowings of things to come than the descriptions of things
that had actually been executed. Thus, no one pretends that the Marquis
ever constructed a steamboat, and yet his description of a vessel “to
work itself against wind and tide, yea, both, without the help of man
or beast,” can apply to nothing else.[15] “This engine,” said he, “is
applicable to any vessel or boat whatsoever, without being therefore made
on purpose, and worketh these effects: it roweth, it draweth, it driveth,
(if need be) to pass London Bridge against the stream at low-water, and a
boat laying at anchor, the engine may be used for loading or unloading.”
But it would not be possible for any one to make an engine after the
description given in the ‘Scantlings;’ and to a generation unacquainted
with the powers of steam, his suggestions would be altogether without
meaning.
[14] Dircks’s ‘Life and Times,’ &c., 356.
The strongest evidence which could be adduced of the ambiguity of the
Marquis’s ‘Articles’ is to be found in the fact that the various ingenious
writers who have given plans of his supposed engine have represented it
in widely different forms. Farey assumes that it worked by the expansive
force of steam; Bourne, that it worked by condensation and atmospheric
pressure; Dircks infers that it included such ingenious expedients
as valves and even a four-way cock, worked by a lever-handle; Stuart,
that it contained a cylinder and piston, and was, in fact, a complete
high-pressure lever-engine. Again, the drawings of the various writers
on engineering who have attempted to reproduce the engine--of Stuart,
Galloway, Millington, and Dircks--differ in essential respects.
[15] Mr. Woodcroft is, however, of opinion that the Marquis’s
contrivance was but a boat with paddle-wheels, with an axis
across it, which axis was turned by the action of the stream
on the paddles, and thus wound up a rope and dragged the
boat onward to the other end of the rope fixed by an anchor;
certainly a more clumsy and less notable contrivance than that
of a steamboat.
When Watt was on one occasion asked for his opinion as to the precise
nature of the Marquis’s contrivance, his answer was, that the descriptions
given were too obscure to enable any definite opinion to be formed on
the subject; but he thought that the expansive power of steam was the
principle on which the engine worked. He added, that no one could possibly
erect an engine after the Marquis’s ‘Scantlings,’ and that any inventor
desirous of constructing a steam-engine would have to begin again at the
beginning. But though the Marquis did not leave the steam-engine in such
a state as to be taken up and adopted as a practicable working power, he
at least advanced it several important steps. In this world, it is not
given to man to finish; to persevere, to improve, and to advance, are all
that can be hoped for; and these are enough for the real philosopher.
Little remains to be told of the unfortunate Marquis’s history. His
water-commanding engine proved of no service to him. It only increased
his embarrassments by involving him in further debts. The Restoration,
though it gave him back his estates, did not mend his fortunes, and he
continued to importune his friends for loans. He sought access to the
King by petition; but it became more and more difficult to approach him.
On one occasion he tried to accomplish his purpose through the influence
of his Majesty’s mistress, Lady Castlemaine. Provided she could persuade
the king to grant his request, he offered to present to her “a thousand
pieces to buy her a little jewel, which she deserves to wear every day
of the week. And if it please God I live but two years,” he added, “I
will, out of the profits of my water-commanding engine, appropriate four
hundred pounds yearly, for ever, to her Grace’s disposal ... all which, as
I am a gentleman and a Christian, shall be faithfully and most thankfully
performed; though the benefit I pretend to by my petition will not amount
to what my gratitude obliges, yet the satisfaction which it will be to
my mind, and my credit therein at stake, I value at ten times as much.
And this will enable me to place my Water-commanding Engine, when I am
certained of an hundred pounds a day profit, without further troubling
the king or anybody.”[16]
All his piteous importunity proved of no avail. His friends turned
aside from his petitionings, and the king would give him no help. He
came to be regarded as a crack-brained enthusiast, and a wild projector
of impracticable things. He could not find any one to believe in his
water-commanding engine, though he himself regarded it as of greater worth
than either his titles or his estates. It had been his own creation--the
child of his brain--the product of studies and experiments extending over
nearly forty years. But what signified all this if no one would make use
of the invention?
His difficulties and embarrassments grew from day to day; and his projects
met with increased contumely and even contempt. None valued them, because
none understood them. It was even proposed to appropriate to other
purposes the premises at Vauxhall, on which he so much plumed himself, but
which he had been unable to purchase. To prevent this, he again petitioned
the king in 1666, representing that he had expended 9000_l._ in building
the house he occupied there as “an operatory for engineers and artists to
make public works in,” and “above 50,000_l._ trying conclusions of arts in
that operatory which may be useful to his Majesty and his kingdom;” and he
concluded by praying that Vauxhall might be granted to him at a fee-farm
rent. The Marchioness, his wife, at the same time petitioned the House of
Lords, representing the state of poverty to which her husband had been
reduced, and that, in consequence of an execution having been put in at
Worcester House, through a debt of 6000_l._ which the Marquis had incurred
in 1642 to pay the garrison of Monmouth, then in a state of mutiny, he
was actually threatened to be turned out of house and home. It is not
known what came of this petition; but shortly after its presentation the
poor Marquis was beyond all worldly help. Broken in health, harassed,
embarrassed, and disappointed, he died in April, 1667, in the sixty-sixth
year of his age, and his remains were conveyed to Raglan for interment in
the family vault.
[16] Letter to some person unknown, quoted by Mr. Dircks from the
Badminton MSS.--Dircks’s ‘Life, Times,’ &c., 276.
It will be remembered that the Marquis concluded the 98th article of his
‘Century’ with the words, “I call this a semi-omnipotent engine, and do
intend that a model thereof be buried with me.” A diligent search for the
model has recently been made in the vault under Raglan church, under the
direction of Mr. Bennet Woodcroft, whose enthusiasm as a collector of
primitive engines and machines is so well known; but the search proved
unsuccessful, and no traces of the Marquis’s model could be found.
[Illustration: RUINS OF RAGLAN CASTLE.
[By Percival Skelton.]]