WATT’S CONNEXION WITH DR. ROEBUCK--WATT ACTS AS SURVEYOR AND ENGINEER.
Dr. Black continued to take a lively interest in Watt’s experiments,
and lent him occasional sums of money from time to time to enable him
to prosecute them to an issue. But the Doctor’s means were too limited
to permit him to do more than supply Watt’s more pressing necessities.
Meanwhile, the debts which the latter had already incurred, small though
they were in amount, hung like a millstone round his neck. Black then
bethought him whether it would not be possible to associate Watt with some
person possessed of sufficient means, and of an active commercial spirit,
who should join as a partner in the risk, and share in the profits of
the enterprise. Such a person, he thought, was Dr. Roebuck, the founder
of the Carron Iron Works, an enterprising man, of undaunted spirit, not
scared by difficulties, nor a niggard of expense when he saw before him
any reasonable prospect of advantage.[81]
[81] For Memoir of Roebuck, see ‘Industrial Biography,’ p. 133.
Roebuck was at that time engaged in sinking for coal on a large scale near
Boroughstoness, where he experienced considerable difficulty in keeping
the shafts clear of water. The Newcomen engine, which he had erected, was
found comparatively useless, and he was ready to embrace any other scheme
which held out a reasonable prospect of success. Accordingly, when his
friend Dr. Black informed him of an ingenious young mechanic at Glasgow
who had invented a steam-engine, capable of working with increased power,
speed, and economy, Roebuck immediately felt interested, and entered
into correspondence with Watt on the subject. He was at first somewhat
sceptical as to the practicability of the new engine, so different in
its action from that of Newcomen; and he freely stated his doubts to Dr.
Black. He was under the impression that condensation might in some way
be effected in the cylinder without injection; and he urged Watt to try
whether this might not be done. Contrary to his own judgment, Watt tried
a series of experiments with this object, and at last abandoned them,
Roebuck himself admitting his error.
Up to this time Watt and Roebuck had not met, though they carried on a
long correspondence on the subject of the engine. In September, 1765, we
find Roebuck inviting Watt to come over with Dr. Black to Kinneil (where
Roebuck lived), and discuss with him the subject of the engine. Watt
wrote to say that “if his foot allowed him” he would visit Carron on a
certain day, from which we infer that he intended to walk. But the way
was long and the road miry, and Watt could not then leave his instrument
shop, so the visit was postponed. In the mean time Roebuck urged Watt to
press forward his invention with all speed, “whether he pursued it as a
philosopher or as a man of business.”
In the month of November following, Watt forwarded to Roebuck the detailed
drawings of a covered cylinder and piston to be cast at the Carron Works.
Though the cylinder was the best that could be made there, it was very
ill-bored, and was eventually laid aside as useless. The piston-rod was
made at Glasgow, under Watt’s own supervision; and when it was completed
he was afraid to send it on a common cart, lest the workpeople should see
it, which would “occasion speculation.” “I believe,” he wrote in July,
1766, “it would be best to send it in a box.” These precautions would
seem to have been dictated, in some measure, by fear of piracy; and it is
obvious that the necessity of acting by stealth increased the difficulty
of getting the various parts of the proposed engine constructed. Watt’s
greatest obstacle continued to be the clumsiness and inexpertness of his
mechanics. “My principal hinderance in erecting engines,” he wrote to
Roebuck, “is always the smith-work.”
In the mean time it was necessary for Watt to attend to the maintenance
of his family. He found that the steam-engine experiments brought nothing
in, while they were a constant source of expense. Besides, they diverted
him from his retail business, which needed constant attention. It ought
also to be mentioned that his partner having lately died, the business
had been somewhat neglected and had consequently fallen off. At length he
determined to give it up altogether, and begin the business of a surveyor.
He accordingly removed from the shop in Buchanan’s Land to an office on
the east side of King-street, a little south of Prince’s-street. It would
appear that he succeeded in obtaining a fair share of business in his new
vocation. He already possessed a sufficient knowledge of surveying from
the study of the instruments which it had been his business to make; and
application and industry did the rest. His first jobs were in surveying
lands, defining boundaries, and surveyor’s work of the ordinary sort; from
which he gradually proceeded to surveys of a more important character.
It affords some indication of the local estimation in which Watt was
held, that the magistrates of Glasgow should have selected him as a proper
person to survey a canal for the purpose of opening up a new coal-field
in the neighbourhood, and connecting it with the city, with a view to a
cheaper and more abundant supply of fuel. He also surveyed a ditch-canal
for the purpose of connecting the rivers Forth and Clyde, by what was
called the Loch Lomond passage; though the scheme of Brindley and Smeaton
was eventually preferred as the more direct line. Watt came up to London
in 1767, in connexion with the application to Parliament for powers to
construct his canal; and he seems to have been very much disgusted with
the proceedings before “the confounded committee of Parliament,” as he
called it; adding, “I think I shall not long to have anything to do with
the House of Commons again. I never saw so many wrong-headed people on
all sides gathered together.” The fact, however, that they had decided
against him had probably some share in leading him to form this opinion
as to the wrong-headedness of the Parliamentary Committee.
Though interrupted by indispensable business of this sort, Watt proceeded
with the improvement of his steam-engine whenever leisure permitted.
Roebuck’s confidence in its eventual success was such that in 1767 he
undertook to pay debts to the amount of 1000_l._ which Watt had incurred
in prosecuting his project up to that time, and also to provide the means
of prosecuting further experiments, as well as to secure a patent for
the engine. In return for this outlay Roebuck was to have two-thirds of
the property in the invention. Early in 1768 Watt made trial of a new
and larger model, with a cylinder of seven or eight inches diameter. But
the result was not very satisfactory. “By an unforeseen misfortune,” he
wrote Roebuck, “the mercury found its way into the cylinder, and played
the devil with the solder. This throws us back at least three days, and
is very vexatious, especially as it happened in spite of the precautions
I had taken to prevent it.” Roebuck, becoming impatient, urged Watt to
meet him to talk the matter over; and suggested that as Watt could not
come as far as Carron, they should meet at Kilsyth, about fifteen miles
from Glasgow. Watt replied, saying he was too unwell to be able to ride
so far, and that his health was such that the journey would disable him
from doing anything for three or four days after. But he went on with
his experiments, patching up his engine, and endeavouring to get it into
working condition. After about a month’s labour, he at last succeeded to
his heart’s content; and he at once communicated the news to his partner,
intimating his intention of at last paying his long-promised visit to
Roebuck at Kinneil. “I sincerely wish you joy of this successful result,”
he said, “and hope it will make some return for the obligations I owe
you.”
[Illustration: KINNEIL HOUSE.]
Kinneil House, to which Watt hastened to pay his visit of congratulation
to Dr. Roebuck, is an old-fashioned building, somewhat resembling an old
French château. It was a former country-seat of the Dukes of Hamilton,
and is finely situated on the shores of the Frith of Forth. The mansion
is rich in classical associations, having been inhabited, since Roebuck’s
time, by Dugald Stewart, who wrote in it his ‘Philosophy of the Human
Mind.’[82] There he was visited by Wilkie, the painter, when in search
of subjects for his pictures; and Dugald Stewart found for him, in an
old farmhouse in the neighbourhood, the cradle-chimney introduced in the
“Penny Wedding.” But none of these names can stand by the side of that
of Watt; and the first thought at Kinneil, of every one who is familiar
with his history, would be of the memorable day when he rode over in
exultation to wish Dr. Roebuck joy of the success of the steam-engine.
His note of triumph was, however, premature. He had yet to suffer many
sickening delays and bitter disappointments; for, though he had contrived
to get his model executed with fair precision, the skill was still wanting
to manufacture the parts of their full size with the requisite unity; and
his present elation was consequently doomed to be succeeded by repeated
discomfiture.
[82] When we visited the place many years ago, Miss Stewart’s
spinnet still stood in the drawing-room, but there was not a
tone left in it. Like many other old houses, Kinneil has the
reputation of being haunted. The ghost is that of a “Lady
Lilburne,” wife of the Parliamentary General, who is said
to have thrown herself out of one of the windows during her
husband’s absence.
The model went so well, however, that it was determined at once to take
out a patent for the engine. The first step was to secure its provisional
protection, and with that object Watt went to Berwick-upon-Tweed, and made
a declaration before a Master in Chancery of the nature of the invention.
In August, 1768, we find him in London on the business of the patent. He
became utterly wearied with the delays interposed by sluggish officialism,
and disgusted with the heavy fees which he was required to pay in order
to protect his invention. He wrote home to his wife at Glasgow in a very
desponding mood. Knowing her husband’s diffidence and modesty, but having
the fullest confidence in his genius, she replied, “I beg that you will
not make yourself uneasy, though things should not succeed to your wish.
If it [the condensing engine] will not do, _something else will; never
despair_.” Watt must have felt cheered by these brave words of his noble
helpmate, and encouraged to go onward cheerfully in hope.
He could not, however, shake off his recurring fits of despondency, and
on his return to Glasgow, we find him occasionally in very low spirits.
Though his head was full of his engine, his heart ached with anxiety
for his family, who could not be maintained on hope, already so often
deferred. The more sanguine Roebuck was elated with the good working of
the model, and impatient to bring the invention into practice. He wrote
Watt in October, 1768, “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, but only the speediest and most effectual
manner of executing an engine of a proper size, according to your present
ideas.”
Watt, however, felt that his invention was capable of many improvements,
and he was never done introducing new expedients. He proceeded, in the
intervals of leisure which he could spare from his surveying business,
to complete the details of the drawings and specification,--making
various trials of pipe-condensers, plate-condensers, and
drum-condensers,--contriving steam-jackets to prevent the waste of heat
and new methods for securing greater tightness of the piston,--inventing
condenser-pumps, oil-pumps, gauge-pumps, exhausting-cylinders,
loading-valves, double cylinders, beams, and cranks. All these
contrivances had to be thought out and tested, elaborately and painfully,
amidst many failures and disappointments; and Dr. Roebuck began to fear
that the fresh expedients which were always starting up in Watt’s brain,
would endlessly protract the consummation of the invention. Watt, on
his part, felt that he could only bring the engine nearer to perfection
by never resting satisfied with imperfect devices, and hence he left no
means untried to overcome the many practical defects in it of which he
was so conscious. Long after, when a noble lord was expressing to him the
admiration with which he regarded his great achievement, 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.”
As to the lethargy from which Roebuck sought to raise Watt, it was merely
the temporary reaction of a mind strained and wearied with long-continued
application to a single subject, and from which it seemed to be
occasionally on the point of breaking down altogether. To his intimate
friends, Watt bemoaned his many failures, his low spirits, his bad health,
and his sleepless nights. He wrote to his friend Dr. Small[83] in January,
1769, “I have many things I could talk to you about--much contrived, and
little executed. How much would good health and spirits be worth to me!”
A month later he wrote, “I am still plagued with headaches, and sometimes
heart-aches.”
[83] Dr. Small was born in 1734 at Carmylie, Angus, Scotland, of
which parish his father was the minister. He had been for some
time the professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of
Williamsburg, Virginia, from whence he returned to England and
settled at Birmingham.
It is nevertheless a remarkable proof of Watt’s indefatigable perseverance
in his favourite pursuit, that at this very time, when apparently sunk in
the depths of gloom, he learnt German for the purpose of getting at the
contents of a curious book, the _Theatrum Machinarum_ of Leupold, which
just then fell into his hands, and contained an account of the machines,
furnaces, methods of working, profits, &c., of the mines in the Upper
Hartz. His instructor in the language was a Swiss dyer,[84] settled in
Glasgow. With the like object of gaining access to untranslated books
in French and Italian--then the great depositories of mechanical and
engineering knowledge--Watt had already mastered both those languages.
[84] “I have,” he writes, “just now got a curious book, being
an account of all the machines, furnaces, methods of working,
profits, &c., of the mines of the Upper Hartz. It is unluckily
in German, which I understand little of, but am improving in by
the help of a truly Chymical Swiss Dyer, who is come here to dye
standing red on linen and cotton, in which he is successful. He
is according to the custom of philosophers ennuyé to a great
degree, but seems to be more modest than is usual with them;
and, what is still more unusual, is attached only to his dyeing,
though he has a tolerable knowledge of chymestry. He promises
to make me a coat that will not wet though boiled in water. This
would be of great use to a hundred people I see just now running
by, wet to the skin.... I verily believe the drops are an inch
in diameter! To return to the book--it contains an account of
all the unsuccessful experiments that have been tried in the
Hartz, and I assure you it gives me some consolation to see
the great Liebnitz, the rival of Newton, bungling repeatedly,
applying wind mills to raise ore while water ran idle past him.
There is among other machines the fellow of Blackie’s, only
worked by water, and a full and true account of why it did not
succeed, which he should read. Their machines in general display
great ingenuity though ignorance of principles.”--Watt to Small,
May 28, 1769. Boulton MSS.
In preparing his specification, Watt viewed the subject in all its
bearings. The production of power by steam is a very large one, but Watt
grasped it thoroughly. The insight with which he searched, analysed,
arranged, and even provided for future modifications, was the true insight
of genius. He seems with an almost prophetic eye to have seen all that
steam was capable of accomplishing. This is well illustrated by his early
plan of working steam expansively by cutting it off at about half-stroke,
thereby greatly economising its use;[85] as well as by his proposal to
employ high-pressure steam where cold water could not be used for purposes
of condensation.[86] The careful and elaborate manner in which he studied
the specification, and the consideration which he gave to each of its
various details, are clear from his correspondence with Dr. Small, which
is peculiarly interesting, as showing Watt’s mind actively engaged in
the very process of invention. At length the necessary specification and
drawings were completed and lodged early in 1769,--a year also remarkable
as that in which Arkwright took out the patent for his spinning-machine.
[85] “I mentioned to you a method of still doubling the effect of
the steam, and that tolerably easy, by using the power of steam
rushing into a vacuum, at present lost. This would do a little
more than double the effect, but it would too much enlarge the
vessels to use it all. It is peculiarly applicable to wheel
engines, and may supply the want of a condenser where force
of steam is only used; for, open one of the steam valves and
admit steam, until one-fourth of the distance between it and the
next valve is filled with steam, shut the valve, and the steam
will continue to expand and to press round the wheel with a
diminishing power, ending in one-fourth of its first exertion.
The sum of this series you will find greater than one-half,
though only one-fourth steam was used. The power will indeed be
unequal, but this can be remedied by a fly, or in several other
ways.”--Watt to Small, 28th May, 1769. Boulton MSS.
[86] He anticipated the use of high-pressure steam, as afterwards
employed in the locomotive by Trevithick, in the following
passage:--“I intend,” he said, “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.”--Watt to Small,
March, 1769. Boulton MSS.
In order to master thoroughly the details of the ordinary Newcomen
engine, and to ascertain the extent of its capabilities as well as of its
imperfections, Watt undertook the erection of several engines of this
construction; and during his residence at Kinneil took charge of the
Schoolyard engine near Boroughstoness, in order that he might thereby
acquire a full practical knowledge of its working. Mr. Hart, in his
interesting ‘Reminiscences of James Watt,’ gives the following account:
“My late brother had learned from an old man who had been a workman at Dr.
Roebuck’s coal-works when Mr. Watt was there, that he had erected a small
engine on a pit they called Taylor’s Pit. The workman could not remember
what kind of engine it was, but it was the fastest-going one he ever saw.
From its size, and from its being placed in a small timber-house, the
colliers called it ‘the Box Bed.’ We thought it likely to have been the
first of the patent engines made by Mr. Watt, and took the opportunity
of mentioning this to him at our interview. He said he had erected that
engine, but he did not wish at the time to venture on a patent one until
he had a little more experience.”[87]
[87] Mr. Hart’s “Reminiscences of James Watt,” in ‘Transactions
of the Glasgow Archæological Society,’ Part I. 1859.
At length he proceeded to erect the trial engine after his new patent, and
made arrangements to stay at Kinneil until the work was finished. It had
been originally intended to erect it in the little town of Boroughstoness;
but as prying eyes might have there watched his proceedings, and as he
wished to avoid display, being determined, as he said, “not to puff,”
he fixed upon an outhouse behind Kinneil, close by the burn-side in the
glen, where there was abundance of water and secure privacy. The materials
were brought to the place, partly from Watt’s small works at Glasgow,
and partly from Carron, where the cylinder--of eighteen inches diameter
and five feet stroke--had been cast; and a few workmen were placed at his
disposal.
[Illustration: THE OUTHOUSE BEHIND KINNEIL.]
The process of erection was very tedious, owing to the clumsiness of
the mechanics employed on the job. Watt was occasionally compelled to be
absent on other business, and on his return he usually found the men at a
standstill, not knowing what to do next. As the engine neared completion,
his “anxiety for his approaching doom” kept him from sleep; for his fears,
as he said, were at least equal to his hopes. He was easily cast down by
little obstructions, and especially discouraged by unforeseen expense.
Roebuck, on the contrary, was hopeful and energetic, and often took
occasion to rally the other on his despondency under difficulties, and
his almost painful want of confidence in himself. Roebuck was, doubtless,
of much service to Watt in encouraging him to proceed with his invention,
and also in suggesting some important modifications in the construction
of the engine. It is probable, indeed, that but for his help, Watt could
not have gone on. Robison says, “I remember Mrs. Roebuck remarking one
evening, ‘Jamie is a queer lad, and, without the Doctor, his invention
would have been lost; but Dr. Roebuck won’t let it perish.’”
The new engine, on which Watt had expended so much labour, anxiety, and
ingenuity, was completed in September, 1759, about six months from the
date of its commencement. But its success was far from decided. Watt
himself declared it to be “a clumsy job.” His new arrangement of the
pipe-condenser did not work well; and the cylinder having been badly cast,
was found almost useless. One of his greatest difficulties consisted in
keeping the piston tight. He wrapped it round with cork, oiled rags, tow,
old hat, paper, horse-dung, and other things, but still there were open
spaces left, sufficient to let the air in and the steam out. Watt was
grievously depressed by his want of success, and he had serious thoughts
of giving up the thing altogether. Before abandoning it, however, the
engine was again thoroughly overhauled, many improvements were introduced
in it, and a new trial was made of its powers. But this proved not more
successful than the earlier ones had been. “You cannot conceive,” he
wrote to Small, “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 was therefore bound to prosecute his project by honour not less than
by interest; and summoning up his courage, he went on with it anew. He
continued to have the same confidence as ever in the principles of his
engine: where it broke down was in workmanship. Could mechanics but be
found capable of accurately executing its several parts, he believed that
its success was certain. But there were no such mechanics then at Carron.
By this time Roebuck was becoming embarrassed with debt, and involved in
various difficulties. The pits were drowned with water, which no existing
machinery could pump out, and ruin threatened to overtake him before
Watt’s engine could come to his help. He had sunk in the coal-mine, not
only his own fortune, but much of the property of his relatives; and
he was so straitened for money that he was unable to defray the cost of
taking out the engine patent according to the terms of his engagement, and
Watt had accordingly to borrow the necessary money from his never-failing
friend, Dr. Black. He was thus adding to his own debts, without any
clearer prospect before him of ultimate relief. No wonder that he should,
after his apparently fruitless labour, express to Small his belief that,
“of all things in life, there is nothing more foolish than inventing.”
The unhappy state of his mind may be further inferred from his lamentation
expressed to the same friend on the 31st of January, 1770. “To-day,” said
he, “I enter the thirty-fifth year of my life, and I think I have hardly
yet done thirty-five pence worth of good in the world; but I cannot help
it.”
Notwithstanding the failure of his engine thus far, and the repeated
resolution expressed to Small that he would invent no more, leading, as
inventing did, to only vexation, failure, loss, and increase of headache,
Watt could not control his irrepressible instinct to invent; and whether
the result might be profitable or not, his mind went on as before,
working, scheming, and speculating. Thus, at different times in the course
of his correspondence with Small, who was a man of a like ingenious turn
of mind, we find him communicating various new things, “gimcracks,” as he
termed them, which he had contrived. He was equally ready to contrive a
cure for smoky chimneys, a canal sluice for economising water, a method
of determining “the force necessary to dredge up a cubic foot of mud
under any given depth of water,” and a means of “clearing the observed
distance of the moon from any given star of the effects of refraction and
parallax;” illustrating his views by rapid but graphic designs embodied
in the text of his letters to Small and other correspondents. One of his
minor inventions was a new method of readily measuring distances by means
of a telescope.[88] At the same time he was occupied in making experiments
on kaolin, with the intention of introducing the manufacture of porcelain
in the pottery work on the Broomielaw, in which he was a partner. He was
also concerned with Dr. Black and Dr. Roebuck in pursuing experiments with
the view of decomposing sea-salt by lime, and thereby obtaining alkali
for purposes of commerce. A patent for the process was taken out by Dr.
Roebuck, but eventually proved a failure, like most of his other projects.
We also find Watt inventing a muffling furnace for melting metals, and
sending the drawings to Mr. Boulton at Birmingham for trial. At other
times he was occupied with Chaillet, the Swiss dyer, experimenting on
various chemical substances; corresponding with Dr. Black as to the new
fluoric or spar acid; and at another time making experiments to ascertain
the heats at which water boils at every inch of mercury from vacuo to
air. Later we find him inventing a prismatic micrometer for measuring
distances, which he described in considerable detail in his letters
to Small.[89] He was at the same time busy inventing and constructing
a new surveying quadrant by reflection, and making improvements in
barometers and hygrometers. “I should like to know,” he wrote to Small,
“the principles of _your_ barometer: De Luc’s hygrometer is nonsense.
_Probavi._” Another of his contrivances was his dividing-screw, for
dividing an inch accurately into 1000 equal parts. He states that he found
this screw exceedingly useful, as it saved him much needless compass-work,
and, moreover, enabled him to divide lines into the ordinates of any curve
whatsoever.
[88] The telescope was mounted with two parallel horizontal hairs
in the focus of the eyeglass, crossed by one perpendicular
hair. The measuring pole was divided into feet and inches, so
that, wrote Watt, “if the hairs comprehend one foot at one chain
distance, they will comprehend ten feet at ten chains,” and so
on. This invention Watt made in 1770, and used the telescope
in his various surveys. Eight years later, in 1778, the Society
of Arts awarded to a Mr. Green a premium for precisely the same
invention.
[89] Letter to Small, 24th Nov. 1772. Watt, however, took no
steps to bring this invention before the public, and in 1777,
a similar instrument having been invented by Dr. Maskelyne, was
presented by him to the Royal Society. Thus Watt also lost the
credit of this invention.
Such were the multifarious pursuits in which this indefatigable student
and inquirer was engaged; all tending to cultivate his mind and advance
his education, but comparatively unproductive, so far as regarded
pecuniary return. So unfortunate, indeed, had Watt’s speculations proved,
that his friend Dr. Hutton, of Edinburgh, addressed to him a New-year’s
day letter, with the object of dissuading him from proceeding further with
his unprofitable brain-distressing work. “A happy new year to you!” said
Hutton; “may it be fertile to you in lucky events, but no new inventions!”
He went on to say that invention was only for those who live by the
public, and those who from pride choose to leave a legacy to the public.
It was not a thing likely to be well paid for under a system where the
rule was to be the best paid for the work that was easiest done. It was
of no use, however, telling Watt that he must not invent. One might as
well have told Burns that he was not to sing because it would not pay,
or Wilkie that he was not to paint, or Hutton himself that he was not to
think and speculate as to the hidden operations of nature. To invent was
the natural and habitual operation of Watt’s intellect, and he could not
restrain it.
Watt had already been too long occupied with this profitless work: his
money was all gone; he was in debt; and it behoved him to turn to some
other employment by which he might provide for the indispensable wants
of his family. Having now given up the instrument-making business, he
confined himself almost entirely to surveying. Among his earliest surveys
was one of a coal canal from Monkland to Glasgow, in 1769; and the Act
authorising its construction was obtained in the following year. Watt was
invited to superintend the execution of the works, and he had accordingly
to elect whether he would go on with the engine experiments, the event
of which was doubtful, or embrace an honourable and perhaps profitable
employment, attended with much less risk and uncertainty. His necessities
decided him. “I had,” he said, “a wife and children, and saw myself
growing grey without having any settled way of providing for them.” He
accordingly accepted the appointment offered him by the directors of
the canal, and undertook to superintend the construction of the works at
a salary of 200_l._ a year. At the same time he determined not to drop
the engine, but to proceed with it at such leisure moments as he could
command.
The Monkland Canal was a small concern, and Watt had to undertake a
variety of duties. He acted at the same time as surveyor, superintendent,
engineer, and treasurer, assisted only by a clerk. But the appointment
proved useful to him. The salary he earned placed his family above want,
and the out-doors life he was required to lead improved his health and
spirits. After a few months he wrote Dr. Small that he found himself more
strong, more resolute, less lazy, and less confused, than when he began
the occupation. His pecuniary affairs were also more promising. “Supposing
the engine to stand good for itself,” he said, “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.” But there was a dark side to the picture. His occupation
exposed him to fatigue, vexation, hunger, wet, and cold. Then, the quiet
and secluded habits of his early life did not fit him for the out-door
work of the engineer. He was timid and reserved, and had nothing of the
navvy in his nature. He had neither the roughness of tongue nor stiffness
of back to enable him to deal with rude labour gangs. He was nervously
fearful lest his want of practical experience should betray him into
scrapes, and lead to impositions on the part of his workmen. He hated
higgling, and declared that he would rather “face a loaded cannon than
settle an account or make a bargain.” He had been “cheated,” he said, “by
undertakers, and was unlucky enough to know it.”
Watt continued to act as engineer for the Monkland Canal Company for about
a year and a half,[90] during which he was employed in other engineering
works. Among these was a survey of the river Clyde, with a view to the
improvement of the navigation. Watt sent in his report; but no steps were
taken to carry out his suggestions until several years later, when the
beginning was made of a series of improvements, which have resulted in the
conversion of the Clyde from a pleasant trouting and salmon stream into
one of the busiest navigable highways in the world.[91]
[90] The Company afterwards came to grief. The original
subscription list was not filled up, and the stagnation in trade
which took place at the outbreak of the American war, brought
the works to a standstill. In 1782 the concern was sold to the
Messrs. Stirling, who eventually became the sole proprietors
and finished the undertaking.
[91] There was then a ford at Dumbuck, a few miles below Glasgow,
which prevented boats of more than ten tons burden ascending
to the Broomielaw. This was shortly after removed by the Clyde
Trust, who have expended 3,564,397_l._ in improvement of the
navigation between 1770 and 1863, the revenue collected during
the same time in dues having been 2,288,000_l._ Vessels drawing
21 feet can now ascend to the Broomielaw; and when the present
improvements are completed the depth at high water is expected
to be upwards of 24 feet.
Among Watt’s other labours about the same period may be mentioned his
survey of a canal between Perth and Cupar Angus, through Strathmore; of
the Crinan Canal, afterwards carried out by Rennie; and other projects in
the western highlands. The Strathmore Canal survey was conducted at the
instance of the Commissioners of Forfeited Estates. It was forty miles
long, through a very rough country. Watt set out to make it in September,
1770, and was accompanied by snowstorms through almost the entire
survey. He suffered severely from the cold: the winds swept down from
the Grampians with fury and chilled him to the bone. The making of this
survey occupied him forty-three days, and the remuneration he received
for it was only eighty pounds, which included expenses. The small pay of
engineers at that time may be further illustrated by the fee paid him in
the same year for supplying the magistrates of Hamilton with a design for
the proposed new bridge over the Clyde at that town. It was originally
intended to employ Mr. Smeaton; but as his charge was ten pounds, which
was thought too high, Watt was employed in his stead. The Burgh minutes
record that, after the Act had been obtained in 1770, Baillie Naismith
was appointed to proceed to Glasgow to see Mr. Watt on the subject of a
design, and his charge being only 7_l._ 7_s._, he was requested to supply
it accordingly. “I have lately,” wrote Watt to Small, “made a plan and
estimate of a bridge over our river Clyde, eight miles above this: it is
to be of five arches and 220 feet waterway, founded upon piles on a muddy
bottom.”[92] The bridge, after Watt’s plan, was begun in 1771, but it was
not finished until 1780.[93]
[92] Watt to Small, 21st Dec. 1770. Boulton MSS.
[93] The bridge was partially destroyed by a flood in 1806, when
one of the central piers was thrown down. Two of the arches
fell, and were rebuilt, but the others stand as originally
constructed.
[Illustration: HAMILTON BRIDGE.]
About the same time Watt prepared plans of docks and piers at Port
Glasgow, and of a new harbour at Ayr. The Port Glasgow works were carried
out, but those at Ayr were postponed. When Rennie came to examine the
design for the improvement of the Ayr navigation, of which the new
harbour formed part, he took objections to it, principally because of
the parallelism of the piers, and another plan was eventually adopted.
His principal engineering job, and the last of the kind on which Watt was
engaged in Scotland, was a survey of the Caledonian Canal, long afterwards
carried out by Telford. The survey was made in the autumn of 1773, through
a country without roads. “An incessant rain,” said he, “kept me for three
days as wet as water could make me; I could hardly preserve my journal
book.”
In the midst of this dreary work, Watt was summoned to Glasgow by the
intelligence which reached him of the illness of his wife; and when
he reached home he found that she had died in childbed.[94] Of all the
heavy blows he had suffered, this he felt to be the worst. His wife had
struggled with him through poverty; she had often cheered his fainting
spirit when borne down by doubt, perplexity, and disappointment; and now
she was gone, without being able to share in his good fortune as she had
done in his adversity. For some time after, when about to enter his humble
dwelling, he would pause on the threshold, unable to summon courage to
enter the room where he was never more to meet “the comfort of his life.”
“Yet this misfortune,” he wrote to Small, “might have fallen upon me when
I had less ability to bear it, and my poor children might have been left
suppliants to the mercy of the wide world.”
[94] The child was stillborn. Of four other children who were
the fruit of this marriage, two died young. A son and daughter
survived; the son, James, succeeded his father, and died
unmarried, at Aston Hall, near Birmingham, in 1848. The daughter
married Mr. Miller, of Glasgow, whose grandson, the present J.
W. Gibson Watt, Esq., succeeded to the Watt property.
Watt tried to forget his sorrow, as was his custom, in increased
application to work, though the recovery of the elasticity of his mind was
in a measure beyond the power of his will. There were, at that time, very
few bright spots in his life. A combination of unfortunate circumstances
threatened to overwhelm him. No further progress had yet been made with
his steam-engine, which he almost cursed as the cause of his misfortunes.
Dr. Roebuck’s embarrassments had reached their climax. He had fought
against the water which drowned his coal until he could fight no more,
and he was at last delivered into the hands of his creditors a ruined man.
“My heart bleeds for him,” said Watt, “but I can do nothing to help him.
I have stuck by him, indeed, till I have hurt myself.”
But the darkest hour is nearest the dawn. Watt had passed through a long
night, and a gleam of sunshine at last beamed upon him. Matthew Boulton,
of Birmingham, was at length persuaded to take up the invention on
which Watt had expended so many of the best years of his life, and the
turning-point in Watt’s fortunes had arrived.
[Illustration: PORT GLASGOW.
[By R. P. Leitch.]]
[Illustration: _Mathew Boulton, F.R.S._
_Engraved by W. Hall, after the portrait by Sir W. Beechy, R.A._
_Published by John Murray Albemarle Street. 1865._]
BOULTON AND WATT, ENGINEERS, BIRMINGHAM.
[Illustration: BIRMINGHAM.
[By Percival Skelton.]]