BOULTON AND WATT--THEIR PARTNERSHIP.
Watt had now been occupied for about nine years in working out the details
of his invention. Five of these had passed since he had taken out his
patent, and he was still struggling with difficulty. Several thousand
pounds had been expended on the engine, besides much study, labour,
and ingenuity; yet it was still, as Boulton expressed it, “a shadow, as
regarded its practical utility and value.” So long as Watt’s connexion
with Roebuck continued, there was indeed very little chance of getting
it favourably introduced to public notice. What it was yet to become as a
working power depended in no small degree upon the business ability, the
strength of purpose, and the length of purse of his new partner.
Had Watt searched Europe through, probably he could not have found a man
better fitted than Matthew Boulton for bringing his invention fairly
before the world. Many would have thought it rash on the part of the
latter, burdened as he was with heavy liabilities, to engage in a new
undertaking of so speculative a character. Feasible though the scheme
might be, it was an admitted fact that nearly all the experiments with
the models heretofore made had proved failures. It is true Watt firmly
believed that he had hit upon the right principle, and he was as sanguine
as ever of the eventual success of his engine. But though inventors are
usually sanguine, men of capital do not take up their schemes on that
account. Capitalists are rather disposed to regard sanguine inventors
as visionaries, full of theories of what is possible rather than of
well-defined plans of what is practicable and useful.
Boulton, however, amongst his many other gifts possessed an admirable
knowledge of character. His judgment of men was almost unerring. In
Watt he had recognised at his first visit to Soho, not only a man of
original inventive genius, but a plodding, earnest, intent, and withal
an exceedingly modest man; not given to puff, but on the contrary rather
disposed to underrate the merit of his inventions. Different though
their characters were in most respects, Boulton at once conceived a
hearty liking for him. The one displayed in perfection precisely those
qualities which the other wanted. Boulton was a man of ardent and
generous temperament, bold and enterprising, undaunted by difficulty, and
possessing an almost boundless capacity for work. He was a man of great
tact, clear perception, and sound judgment. Moreover, he possessed that
indispensable quality of perseverance, without which the best talents
are of comparatively little avail in the conduct of important affairs.
While Watt hated business, Boulton loved it. He had, indeed, a genius
for business,--a gift almost as rare as that for poetry, for art, or for
war. He possessed a marvellous power of organisation. With a keen eye
for details he combined a comprehensive grasp of intellect. While his
senses were so acute, that when sitting in his office at Soho he could
detect the slightest stoppage or derangement in the machinery of that
vast establishment, and send his message direct to the spot where it had
occurred, his power of imagination was such as enabled him to look clearly
along extensive lines of possible action in Europe, America, and the East.
For there is a poetic as well as a commonplace side to business; and the
man of business genius lights up the humdrum routine of daily life by
exploring the boundless region of possibility wherever it may lie open
before him.
Boulton had already won his way to the very front rank in his calling,
honestly and honourably; and he was proud of it. He had created many
new branches of industry, which gave regular employment to hundreds of
families. He had erected and organised a manufactory which was looked upon
as one of the most complete of its kind in England, and was resorted to
by visitors from all parts of the world. But Boulton was more than a man
of business: he was a man of culture, and the friend of cultivated men.
His hospitable mansion at Soho was the resort of persons eminent in art,
in literature, and in science; and the love and admiration with which
he inspired such men affords one of the best proofs of his own elevation
of character. Among the most intimate of his friends and associates were
Richard Lovell Edgeworth,[134] a gentleman of fortune, enthusiastically
devoted to his long-conceived design of moving land-carriages by steam;
Captain Keir, an excellent practical chemist, a wit and a man of learning;
Dr. Small, the accomplished physician, chemist, and mechanist; Josiah
Wedgwood, the practical philosopher and manufacturer, founder of a new and
important branch of skilled industry; Thomas Day, the ingenious author of
‘Sandford and Merton;’ Dr. Darwin, the poet-physician; Dr. Withering, the
botanist; besides others who afterwards joined the Soho circle,--not the
least distinguished of whom were Joseph Priestley and James Watt.[135]
[134] Mr. Edgeworth was first introduced to the notice of Mr.
Boulton in the following letter from Dr. Darwin (1767):--“Dear
Boulton, I have got with me a mechanical friend, Mr. Edgeworth,
from Oxfordshire,--the greatest conjurer I ever saw. God send
fine weather, and pray come to my assistance, and prevail on
Dr. Small and Mrs. Boulton to attend you to-morrow morning,
and we will reconvey you to Birmingham if the devil permit. E.
has the principles of nature in his palm, and moulds them as he
pleases,--can take away polarity, or give it to the needle by
rubbing it thrice on the palm of his hand! And can see through
two solid oak boards without glasses! Wonderful! astonishing!!
diabolical!!! Pray tell Dr. Small he must come to see these
miracles. Adieu, E. Darwin.”
[135] Richard Lovell Edgeworth says of this distinguished
coterie,--“By means of Mr. Keir I became acquainted with Dr.
Small of Birmingham, a man esteemed by all who knew him, and
by all who were admitted to his friendship beloved with no
common enthusiasm. Dr. Small formed a link which combined Mr.
Boulton, Mr. Watt, Dr. Darwin, Mr. Wedgwood, Mr. Day, and myself
together--men of very different characters, but all devoted
to literature and science. This mutual intimacy has never
been broken but by death, nor have any of the number failed to
distinguish themselves in science or literature. Some may think
that I ought with due modesty to except myself. Mr. Keir with
his knowledge of the world and good sense; Dr. Small, with his
benevolence and profound sagacity; Wedgwood, with his increasing
industry, experimental variety, and calm investigation; Boulton,
with his mobility, quick perception, and bold adventure; Watt,
with his strong inventive faculty, undeviating steadiness,
and bold resources; Darwin, with his imagination, science, and
poetical excellence; and Day, with his unwearied research after
truth, his integrity and eloquence;--proved altogether such a
society as few men have had the good fortune to live with; such
an assemblage of friends, as fewer still have had the happiness
to possess, and keep through life.”--Memoirs, i. 186.
Boulton could not have been very sanguine at first as to the success of
Watt’s engine. There were a thousand difficulties in the way of getting
it introduced to general use. The principal one was the difficulty of
finding workmen capable of making it. Watt had been constantly worried
by “villanous bad workmen,” who failed to make any model that would go
properly. It mattered not that the principle of the engine was right;
if its construction was beyond the skill of ordinary handicraftsmen,
the invention was practically worthless. The great Smeaton was of this
opinion. When he saw the first model working at Soho, he admitted the
excellence of the contrivance, but predicted its failure, on the ground
that it was too complicated, and that workmen were not to be found capable
of manufacturing it on any large scale for general uses.
Watt himself felt that, if the engine was ever to have a fair chance,
it was now; and that if Boulton, with his staff of skilled workmen at
command, could not make it go, the scheme must be abandoned henceforward
as impracticable. Boulton must, however, have seen the elements of success
in the invention, otherwise he would not have taken up with it. He knew
the difficulties Watt had encountered in designing it, and he could well
appreciate the skill with which he had overcome them; for Boulton himself,
as we have seen, had for some time been occupied with the study of the
subject. But the views of Boulton on entering into his new branch of
business, cannot be better expressed than in his own words, as stated in
a letter written by him to Watt in 1769, when then invited to join the
Roebuck partnership:--
“The plan proposed to me,”[136] said he, “is so very different
from that which I had conceived at the time I talked with you
upon the subject, that I cannot think it a proper one for me to
meddle with, as I do not intend turning engineer. I was excited
by two motives to offer you my assistance--which were, love of
you, and love of a money-getting ingenious project. I presumed
that your engine would require money, very accurate workmanship,
and extensive correspondence, to make it turn out to the best
advantage; and that the best means of keeping up our reputation
and doing the invention justice, would be to keep the executive
part out of the hands of the multitude of empirical engineers,
who, from ignorance, want of experience, and want of necessary
convenience, would be very liable to produce bad and inaccurate
workmanship; all which deficiencies would affect the reputation of
the invention. To remedy which, and to produce the most profit,
my idea was to settle a manufactory near my own, by the side of
our canal, where I would erect all the conveniences necessary for
the completion of engines, and from which manufactory we would
serve the world with engines of all sizes. By these means and your
assistance we could engage and instruct some excellent workmen,
who (with more excellent tools than would be worth any man’s while
to procure for one single engine) could execute the invention 20
per cent. cheaper than it would be otherwise executed, and with as
great a difference of accuracy as there is between the blacksmith
and the mathematical instrument maker.”
[136] Dr. Roebuck proposed to confine Boulton’s profits to the
engine business done only in three counties. It will be observed
that Boulton declined to negotiate on such a basis.
He went on to state that he was willing to enter upon the speculation
with these views, considering it well worth his while “to make engines
for all the world,” though it would not be worth his while “to make for
three counties only;” besides, he declared himself averse to embark in any
trade that he had not the inspection of himself. He concluded by saying,
“Although there seem to be some obstructions to our partnership in the
engine trade, yet I live in hopes that you or I may hit upon some scheme
or other that may associate us in this part of the world, which would
render it still more agreeable to me than it is, by the acquisition of
such a neighbour.”[137]
Five years had passed since this letter was written, during which the
engine had made no way in the world. The partnership of Roebuck and Watt
had yielded nothing but vexation and debt; until at last, fortunately for
Watt--though at the time he regarded it as a terrible calamity--Roebuck
broke down, and the obstruction was removed which had prevented Watt and
Boulton from coming together. The latter at once reverted to the plan
of action which he had with so much sagacity laid down in 1769; and he
invited Watt to take up his abode at Soho until the necessary preliminary
arrangements could be made. He thought it desirable, in the first place,
to erect the engine, of which the several parts had been sent to Soho from
Kinneil, in order, if possible, to exhibit a specimen of the invention
in actual work. Boulton undertook to defray all the necessary expenses,
and to find competent workmen to carry out the instructions of Watt,
whom Boulton was also to maintain until the engine business had become
productive.[138]
[137] Boulton to Watt, 7th February, 1769. Boulton MSS.
[138] In a statement prepared by Mr. Boulton for the consideration
of the arbitrators between himself and Fothergill as to the
affairs of that firm, the following passage occurs:--“The first
engine that was erected at Soho I purchased of Mr. Watt and
Dr. Roebuck. The cylinder was cast of solid grain tin, which
engine, with the boiler, the valves, the condenser, and the
pumps, were all sent from Scotland to Soho. This engine was
erected for the use of the Soho manufactory, and for the purpose
of making experiments upon by Mr. Watt, who occupied two years
of his time at Soho with that object: and lived there at Mr.
Boulton’s expense. Nevertheless Mr. Watt often assisted Boulton
and Fothergill in anything in his power, and made one journey
to London upon their business, when he worked at adjusting and
marking weights manufactured by Boulton and Fothergill.” In
another statement of a similar kind, Mr. Boulton says,--“The
only fire-engine that was erected at Soho prior to Boulton and
Watt obtaining the Act of Parliament, was entirely made and
erected in Scotland, and was removed here by sea, being a part
of my bargain with Roebuck. All that were afterwards erected
were for persons that ordered them, and were at the expense of
erecting them.”--Boulton MSS.
The materials brought from Kinneil were accordingly put together with as
little delay as possible; and, thanks to the greater skill of the workmen
who assisted in its erection, the engine, when finished, worked in a more
satisfactory manner than it had ever done before. In November, 1774, Watt
wrote Dr. Roebuck, informing him of the success of his trials; on which
the Dr. expressed his surprise that the engine should have worked at all,
“considering the slightness of the materials and its long exposure to the
injuries of the weather.” Watt also wrote to his father at Greenock. “The
business I am here about has turned out rather successful; that is to say,
the fire-engine I have invented is now going, and answers much better than
any other that has yet been made; and I expect that the invention will be
very beneficial to me.”[139] Such was Watt’s modest announcement of the
successful working of the engine on which such great results depended.
[139] Quoted in Muirhead’s ‘Mechanical Inventions of James Watt,’
ii. 79.
Much, however, remained to be done before either Watt or Boulton could
reap any benefit from the invention. Six years out of the fourteen for
which the patent was originally taken had already expired; and all that
had been accomplished was the erection of this experimental engine at
Soho. What further period might elapse before capitalists could be brought
to recognise the practical uses of the invention could only be guessed
at; but the probability was that the patent right would expire long before
such a demand for the engines arose as should remunerate Boulton and Watt
for their investment of time, labour, and capital. And the patent once
expired, the world at large would be free to make the engines, though Watt
himself had not recovered one farthing towards repaying him for the long
years of experiment, study, and ingenuity bestowed by him in bringing his
invention to perfection. These considerations made Boulton hesitate before
launching out the money necessary to provide the tools, machinery, and
buildings, for carrying on the intended manufacture on a large scale and
in the best style.
When it became known that Boulton had taken an interest in a new engine
for pumping water, he had many inquiries about it from the mining
districts. The need of a more effective engine than any then in use
was every year becoming more urgent. The powers of Newcomen’s engine
had been tried to the utmost. So long as the surface-lodes were worked,
its power was sufficient to clear the mines of water; but as they were
carried deeper, it was found totally inadequate for the work, and many
mines were consequently becoming gradually drowned out and abandoned.
The excessive consumption of coals by the Newcomen engines was another
serious objection to their use, especially in districts such as Cornwall,
where coal was very dear. When Small was urging Watt to come to Birmingham
and make engines, he wrote: “A friend of Boulton’s, in Cornwall, sent
us word a few days ago that four or five copper-mines are just going to
be abandoned because of the high price of coals, and begs us to apply to
them instantly. The York Buildings Company delay rebuilding their engine,
with great inconvenience to themselves, waiting for yours. Yesterday
application was made to me by a Mining Company in Derbyshire to know when
you are to be in England about the engines, because they must quit their
mine if you cannot relieve them.” The necessity for an improved pumping
power had set many inventors to work besides Watt, and some of the less
scrupulous of them were already trying to adopt his principle in such a
way as to evade his patent. Moore, the London linendraper, and Hatley,
one of Watt’s Carron workmen, had brought out and were pushing engines
similar to Watt’s; the latter having stolen and sold for a considerable
sum working drawings of the Kinneil engine.
From these signs Boulton saw that, in the event of the engine proving
successful, he and his partner would have to defend the invention against
a host of pirates; and he became persuaded that he would not be justified
in risking his capital in the establishment of a steam-engine manufactory
unless a considerable extension of the patent-right could be secured. To
ascertain whether this was practicable, Watt proceeded to London in the
beginning of 1775, to confer with his patent agent and take the opinion of
counsel on the subject. Mr. Wedderburn, who was advised with, recommended
that the existing patent should be surrendered, and in that case he did
not doubt that a new one would be granted. While in London, Watt looked
out for possible orders for his engine: “I have,” he wrote Boulton, “a
prospect of two orders for fire-engines here, one to water Piccadilly, and
the other to serve the south end of Blackfriars Bridge with water. I have
taken advice of several people whom I could trust about the patent. They
all agree that an Act would be much better and cheaper, a patent being
now 130_l._, the Act, if obtainable, 110_l._ The present patent has eight
years still to run, bearing date January, 1769. I understand there will
be an almost unlimited sale for wheel-engines to the West Indies, at the
rate of 100_l._ for each horse’s power.”[140]
[140] Watt to Boulton, 31st January, 1775. Boulton MSS.
Watt also occupied some of his time in London in superintending the
adjustment of weights manufactured by Boulton and Fothergill, then sold
in considerable quantities through their London agent. That he continued
to take an interest in his old business of mathematical instrument making
is apparent from the visits which he made to several well-known shops.
One of the articles which he examined with most interest was Short’s
Gregorian telescope. At other times, by Boulton’s request, he went to see
the few steam-engines then at work in London and the neighbourhood, and
make inquiries as to their performances. With that object he examined the
engines at the New River, Hungerford, and Chelsea. At the latter place, he
said, “it was impossible to try the quantity of injection, and the fellow
told me lies about the height of the column of water.” But Watt soon grew
tired of London, “running from street to street all day about gilding,”
inquiring after metal-rollers, silver-platers, and button-makers. He did
his best, however, to execute the commissions which Boulton from time to
time sent him; and when these were executed, he returned to Birmingham to
confer with his friends as to the steps to be taken with respect to the
patent. The result of his conferences with Boulton and Small was, that it
was determined to take steps to apply for an Act for its extension in the
ensuing session of Parliament.
Watt went up to London a second time for the purpose of having the Bill
drawn. He had scarcely arrived there when the sad intelligence reached
him of the death of Dr. Small. He had long been ailing, yet the event
was a shock alike to himself and Boulton. The latter wrote Watt in the
bitterness of his grief, “If there were not a few other objects yet
remaining for me to settle my affections upon, I should wish also to
take up my abode in the mansions of the dead.” Watt replied, reminding
him of the sentiments of their departed friend, as to the impropriety of
indulging in unavailing sorrow, the best refuge from which was the more
sedulous performance of duty. “Come, my dear sir,” said he, “and immerse
yourself in this sea of business as soon as possible. Pay a proper respect
to your friend by obeying his precepts. I wait for you with impatience,
and assure yourself no endeavour of mine shall be wanting to render life
agreeable to you.”
It had been intended to include Small in the steam-engine partnership
on the renewal of the patent. He had been consulted in all the stages of
the proceedings, and one of the last things he did was to draw up Watt’s
petition for the Bill. No settled arrangement had yet been made--not even
between Boulton and Watt. Everything depended upon the success of the
application for the extension of the patent.
Meanwhile, through the recommendation of his old friend Dr. Robison, then
in Russia officiating as Mathematical Professor at the Government Naval
School at Cronstadt, Watt was offered an appointment under the Russian
Government, at a salary of about 1000_l._ a year. He was thus presented
with a means of escape from his dependence upon Boulton, and for the
first time in his life had the prospect before him of an income that to
him would have been affluence. But he entertained strong objections to
settling in Russia: he objected to its climate, its comparative barbarism,
and, notwithstanding the society of his friend Robison, to the limited
social resources of St. Petersburg. Besides, Boulton’s favours were so
gracefully conferred, that the dependence on him was not felt; for he made
the recipient of his favours feel as if the obligation were entirely on
the side of the giver. “Your going to Russia staggers me,” he wrote to
Watt; “the precariousness of your health, the dangers of so long a journey
or voyage, and my own deprivation of consolation, render me a little
uncomfortable; but I wish to assist and advise you for the best, without
regard to self.” The result was, that Watt determined to wait the issue
of the application for the extension of his patent.
The Bill was introduced to Parliament on the 28th of February, 1775, and
it was obvious from the first that it would have considerable opposition
to encounter. The mining interest had looked forward to Watt’s invention
as a means of helping them out of their difficulties and giving a new
value to their property by clearing the drowned mines of water. They
therefore desired to have the free use of the engine at the earliest
possible period; and when it was proposed to extend the patent by Act of
Parliament, they set up with one accord the cry of “No monopoly.” Up to
the present time, as we have seen, the invention had been productive to
Watt of nothing but loss, labour, anxiety, and headaches; and it was only
just that a reasonable period should be allowed to enable him to derive
some advantage from the results of his application and ingenuity. But the
mining interest took a different view of the matter. They did not see the
necessity of recognising the rights of the inventor beyond the term of
his existing patent, and they held that the public interests would suffer
if the proposed “monopoly” were granted. Nor were they without supporters
in Parliament, for among the most strenuous we find the name of Edmund
Burke,--influenced, it is supposed, by certain mining interests in the
neighbourhood of Bristol, which city he then represented.
There is no doubt that the public would have benefited by Watt’s invention
having been made free to all. But it was not for the public merely that
Watt had been working at his engine for fifteen long years. He was a man
of comparatively small means, and had been buoyed up and stimulated to
renewed exertion during that time by the hope of ultimate reward in the
event of its success. If labour could give a man a title to property in
his invention, Watt’s claim was clear. The condensing-engine had been
the product of his own skill, contrivance, and brain-work. But there
has always been a difficulty in getting the claims of mere brain-work
recognised. Had he expended his labour in building a house instead of
in contriving a machine, his right of property would at once have been
acknowledged. As it was, he had to contend for justice and persuade the
legislature of the reasonableness of granting his application for an
extension of the patent. In the “Case” which he drew up for distribution
amongst the members of the Lower House, on the motion being carried
for the recommittal of the Bill, he set forth that having, after great
labour and expense extending over many years, succeeded in completing
working engines of each of the two kinds he had invented, he found that
they could not be carried into profitable execution without the further
expenditure of large sums of money in erecting mills, and purchasing the
various materials and utensils necessary for making them; and from the
reluctance with which the public generally adopt new inventions, he was
afraid that the whole term granted by his patent would expire before the
engines should have come into general use and any portion of his expenses
be repaid:--
“The inventor of these new engines,” said he, “is sorry that
gentlemen of knowledge, and avowed admirers of his invention,
should oppose the Bill by putting it in the light of a monopoly.
He never had any intention of circumscribing or claiming the
inventions of others; and the Bill is now drawn up in such a
manner as sufficiently guards those rights, and must oblige him
to prove his own right to every part of his invention which may
at any time be disputed.... If the invention be valuable, it has
been made so by his industry, and at his expense; he has struggled
with bad health, and many other inconveniences, to bring it to
perfection, and all he wishes is to be secured in the profits
which he may reasonably expect from it,--profits which he cannot
obtain without an exertion of his abilities to bring it into
practice, by which the public must be the greatest gainers, and
which are limited by the performance of the common engines; for
he cannot expect that any person will make use of his contrivance,
unless he can prove to them that savings will take place, and that
his demand for the privilege of using the invention will amount
only to a reasonable part of them. No man will lay aside a known
engine, and stop his work to erect one of a new contrivance,
unless he is certain to be a very great gainer by the exchange;
and if any contrivance shall so far excel others as to enforce the
use of it, it is reasonable that the author of such a contrivance
should be rewarded.”
These weighty arguments could not fail to produce an impression on the
minds of all reasonable men, and the result was, that Parliament passed
an Act extending Watt’s patent right for the further term of twenty-four
years. Watt wrote Boulton on the 27th May,--“I hope to be clear to come
away by Wednesday or Thursday. I am heartily sick of this town and _fort
ennuyée_ since you left it. Dr. Roebuck is likely to get an order, out of
Smeaton’s hands, for an engine in Yorkshire that, according to Smeaton’s
calculation, will burn 1200_l._ per annum in coals. But this has had one
bad effect. It has made the Doctor repent of his bargain and wish again
to be upon the 1-10th [profits]; but we must see to keep him right if
possible, so don’t vex yourself about it.” Dr. Roebuck had been finally
settled with before the passing of the Act. It had been arranged that
Boulton should pay him 1000_l._ out of the first profits arising from
his share in the engine, making about 2200_l._ in all paid by Boulton to
Roebuck for his two-thirds of the patent.[141]
[141] Bonds were given for the 1000_l._, but the assignees of
Roebuck becoming impatient for the money, Boulton discharged
them to get rid of their importunity, long before any profits
had been derived from the manufacture of the engines.
Watt returned to Birmingham to set about the making of the engines for
which orders had already been received. Boulton had been busily occupied
during his absence in experimenting on the Soho engine. A new 18-inch
cylinder had been cast for it at Bersham by John Wilkinson, the great
ironfounder,[142] who had contrived a machine for boring it with accuracy.
This cylinder was substituted for the tin one brought from Kinneil,
and other improvements having been introduced, the engine was again set
to work with very satisfactory results. Watt found his partner in good
spirits; not less elated by the performances of the model than by the
passing of the Act; and arrangements were at once set on foot for carrying
on the manufacture of engines upon an extensive scale. Applications for
terms, followed by orders, shortly came in from the mining districts; and
before long the works at Soho were resounding with the clang of hammers
and machinery employed in manufacturing steam-engines for all parts of
the civilised world.
[142] John Wilkinson, the “father of the iron-trade” as he styled
himself, was a man of extraordinary energy of character.
He was strong-headed and strong-tempered and of inflexible
determination. His father, Isaac Wilkinson, who originally
started the iron trade at Wrexham, was a man possessed of
quick discernment and versatile talents, though he wanted
that firmness and constancy of purpose which so eminently
distinguished his son. Isaac Wilkinson used thus to tell his
own history:--“I worked,” said he, “at a forge in the north.
My masters gave me 12_s._ a week: I was content. They raised
me to 14_s._: I did not ask them for it. They went on to
16_s._, 18_s._: I never asked them for the advances. They gave
me a guinea a week! Said I to myself, if I am worth a guinea
a week to you, I am worth more to myself! I left them, and
began business on my own account--at first in a small way. I
prospered. I grew tired of my leathern bellows, and determined
to make iron ones. Everybody laughed at me. I did it, and
applied the steam-engine to blow them; and they all cried,
‘Who could have thought it!’” His son John carried on the
operations connected with the iron manufacture on a far more
extensive scale than his father at Bradley, Willey, Snedshill,
and Bersham. His castings were the largest until then attempted,
and the boring machinery which he invented was the best of its
kind. All the castings for Boulton and Watt’s large Cornish
engines were manufactured by him, previous to the erection
of the Soho foundry. He also bored cannon for the government
on a large scale. Amongst his other merits, John Wilkinson
is clearly entitled to that of having built the first iron
vessel. It was made to bring peat-moss to his iron furnace at
Wilson House, near Castle Head, in Cartmel, in order to smelt
the hematite iron-ore of Furness. This was followed by other
larger iron vessels, one of which was of 40 tons burden, and
used to carry iron down the Severn. Before Wilkinson’s first
iron boat was launched, people laughed at the idea of its
_floating_,--as it was so well known that iron immediately sank
in water! In a letter to Mr. Stockdale, of Carke, Cartmel, the
original of which is before us, dated Broseley, 14th July,
1787, Mr. Wilkinson says, “Yesterday week my iron boat was
launched,--answers all my expectations, and has convinced the
unbelievers, who were 999 in 1000. It will be only a nine days’
wonder, and afterwards a Columbus’s egg.” In another letter,
dated Bradley Iron Works, 24th Oct., 1788, he writes to the
same,--“There have been two iron vessels launched in my service
since 1st September. One is a canal-boat for this navigation,
the other a barge of 40 tons, for the river Severn. The last was
floated on Monday, and is, I expect, now at Stourport, a-lading
with bar-iron. My clerk at Broseley advises me that she swims
remarkably light, and exceeds even my own expectations.” For
further notice of John Wilkinson, see ‘Lives of the Engineers,’
ii. 337, 356.
[Illustration: WATT’S HOUSE, HARPER’S HILL, BIRMINGHAM.]