PROSPERITY OF SOHO--YOUNG BOULTON AND WATT--THE RIOTS--WILLIAM MURDOCK.
The steam-engine had now become firmly established as a working power.
Beginning as a water pumper for miners, it had gradually been applied
to drive corn and cotton mills, to roll and hammer iron, to coin money,
to work machinery, and to perform the various labour in which the power
of men and horses, of wind and water, had before been employed. The
numerous orders for new engines which came in at Soho kept the works
increasingly busy. Many skilled workmen had by this time been trained into
expertness and dexterity; and, being kept to their special departments
of work,--fathers training their sons to work with them at the same
benches,--a degree of accuracy and finish was reached which contributed
to establish and maintain the prestige of the manufactory. The prosperity
of the firm was also materially promoted by the able assistants who had
been trained at Soho, and were in due time promoted to superintend special
departments of the business. Among these were Murdock, Walker, Southern,
Ewart, and Lawson, who enjoyed the fullest confidence of their chiefs,
and repaid it with unswerving loyalty.
When the concern had become thoroughly organised under these able heads
of departments, Boulton and Watt began to breathe more freely. Their
financial difficulties had now disappeared, and instead of laying out
capital, they had begun to accumulate it. They had laboured hard for their
reward and richly earned it; and after their long up-hill struggle, they
well deserved rest and peace at last. They now began to take occasional
journeys of recreation, with which they varied their journeys of business.
Thus, in the autumn of 1789, we find Boulton making a tour in Derbyshire,
during which he was overtaken at Buxton by a letter from the Lords of
the Privy Council on coining business, giving him “marching orders for
London;” but a party having been formed to visit the Peak Cavern, he
decided “to obey the Ladies rather than the Lords.” Three days later,
however, we find him in London, “writing in a full chattering coffee-house
at Charing Cross,” and desiring his friend Mr. Barrow to pay his respects
to the ladies whom he had so hurriedly left. While in London, he received
a letter inviting him to pay a visit to Holland and stand godfather to his
friend Mr. Hoofletter’s son; to which he replied, that he would be glad
to stand godfather to the boy and have the name of Boulton associated with
an honest race, but was sorry that he could not assist at the christening
or at the dinner. “But pray act for me,” he added; “do everything that’s
proper (as is the custom in the country); give the nurse five guineas
from me, and I will repay you. My best respects to Mrs. Hoofletter, and
my blessing on the young Christian.”
Watt’s troubles and anxieties also were in course of gradual abatement.
Though still suffering from headaches, asthma, and low spirits, he seems
on the whole to have become more satisfied with his lot. Prosperity agreed
with him as it does with most people. It is a condition easy to bear, and
Watt took to it kindly. As years passed over his head, he became placid,
contented, and even cheerful. His health improved, and he enjoyed life in
his old age as he had never done in his youth. He ceased longing for the
rest of the grave, and gave over “cursing his inventions.” On the other
hand, he took pleasure in looking back over the long and difficult road
he had traversed, and in recounting the various steps by which he had
perfected his great inventions. Nor did he cease to invent; for he went on
inventing new things to the close of his life; but he followed the pursuit
as a recreation and delight, and not as a business and a drudgery.
Watt too, like his partner, began to make tours of pleasure, for the
purpose at the same time of gathering health and seeing the beauties of
nature. In August, 1789, he wrote Boulton from Cheltenham, that he had
been making a delightful journey through the Western Counties, by way of
Worcester, Malvern, Hereford, and Chepstow, and that he felt in better
health and spirits than he had been for a very long time. Occasional
letters reached him from Birmingham about orders received for engines,
nothing being done without first consulting him. That the concern was
thriving, may be inferred from the comparative indifference with which
he now regarded such orders. An engine having been ordered by a doubtful
person, Watt wrote--“I look upon such orders as of little value. They are
so precarious in their duration, and in this case there is risk of bad
payment or swindling. Whatever care we take, he is like a shaved pig with
a soaped tail.” On a demand being made upon him for abatement of dues,
he wrote--“We have never made concessions to anybody but they have been
attended with loss to us and half a dozen more; and it would appear that,
if our patent lasted long enough, the power of a horse would grow to that
of an elephant.”[328]
[328] There was a great deal of graphic vigour in Watt’s
correspondence about engines. Thus, in the case of an engine
supplied to F. Scott and Co. to drive a hammer, it appears that
instead of applying it to the hammer only, they applied it also
to blow the bellows. The consequence was, that it worked both
badly. They had also increased the weight of the hammer. Watt
wrote,--“It was easy to foresee all this; and the only adequate
remedy is to have another engine to blow the bellows. It is
impossible that a regular blast can be had while the engine
works the hammer and bellows, _without a regulating belly as
big as a church_.... They have been for _having a pocket bible
in large print_. If they mean to carry on their work regular,
they must have a blowing engine; otherwise they will lose the
price of one in a few months.”
In the course of the following summer, Watt visited the pleasantest spots
in the neighbourhood of London, and amongst other places took Windsor
in his way, where he had the honour of an interview with the King. He
had already met his Majesty at Whitbread’s brewery in the early part of
1787, for the purpose of explaining to him the action of the new rotary
engine; and the King had expressed the desire to see him again when in
the neighbourhood of Windsor. The following is Watt’s brief account of
the visit:--
“At Windsor I had a short conversation with the King. He never
mentioned you nor the coinage, nor anything that led to it;
therefore I could not bring it on; nor do I believe it could
have been of any service. He asked about engines, and how the
Albion mill was going on?--_Answer_: Very well in respect to
grinding, but not so well in regard to the trade. _Asked_: Who
was the manager?--_Answer_: Mr. J. Wyatt, who made the wooden
hospitals. He observed, that Wyatt was not bred to the milling
business; how had he learnt it?--_Answer_: That he was a man
of ability and observation. _Asked_: What sort of engines were
we making?--_Answer_: For almost everything, but at present
principally for brewers, distillers, cotton-spinners, iron-men,
&c.--_Asked_: How we were paid for them?--_Answer_: By horses
power, 5_l._ a year in the country, and that we made none under
four-horses power.--_Asked_: If these premiums afforded sufficient
profit?--_Answer_: That they did in large engines, but not in
small.”[329]
[329] Watt to Boulton, 27th June, 1790.
As Boulton and Watt advanced in years they looked forward with pleasure
to the prospect of their two eldest sons--Matthew Robinson Boulton and
James Watt, junior--joining them in the business they had established,
and relieving them of the greater part of their anxieties and labours
in connexion with it. Both were young men of intelligence and character,
carefully educated, good linguists, and well versed in practical science.
We find many references to the education of the two young men in the
letters of Boulton; few or none in those of Watt. The former alike
attracted young people and was attracted by them, entering heartily into
their pursuits; the latter was too much absorbed by study, by inventions,
and by business, to spare time for the purpose. Besides, he was, like his
countrymen generally, reserved and undemonstrative in all matters relating
to the feelings and affections.
Both boys were trained and educated so as to follow in their fathers’
steps. Every pain was taken to give them the best culture, and to imbue
them with the soundest principles. The two boys usually spent their
holidays together at Soho; and, growing up together, they learnt to think,
and feel, and work together.
“Jim returns to school this evening,” wrote Boulton, to Watt in
Cornwall; “he has behaved exceedingly well, and not a single bill
of indictment has been found against him. He had got it into his
head that he would not be an engineer, which I did not contradict,
but I gave him and Matt the small wooden water-wheel, which they
proceeded to erect below my duck-pond, and there worked a forge;
but not having water enough, necessity has put them upon erecting
a Savery’s engine, which is not yet finished, though they are
both exceedingly keen upon it. We have killed many poor robins
by pouring fixable air upon them, and had some amusement in our
electrical and chemical hobby-horsery, which the young ones like
much better than dry Latin. Jim desires me to ask you to give him
leave to learn French.”
At the same time Boulton’s own son was making good progress under the Rev.
Mr. Stretch, to whom Boulton wrote,--
“Baron Reden has gone to the North. On his return, he will leave
his son with you for a year or two, and then invites Matt to
return with him to Germany. Youth is the time to learn languages,
and the Baron’s offer is certainly a great temptation ... let him
[Matt] not neglect the present, but apply himself so as to become
well grounded in Grammar and Latin ... he is capable, but not of
close application, to which he must be inured, as no proficiency
of any kind can be acquired without it.”
The Baron’s offer was not, however, accepted; but desirous that his son
should acquire proficiency in French, Boulton took him over to Paris,
towards the end of 1786, and placed him under a competent master. Many
kindly letters passed between father and son during the latter’s stay at
Paris. The young man spent rather more money than his father thought could
do him good. He therefore asked him to keep an account of his personal
expenses, which “must balance exactly,” and implored him above all things
to “keep out of bad company.”
“The future reputation and happiness of your life,” wrote
the anxious father, “depend upon your present conduct. I must
therefore insist that you do not go strolling about Sodom and
Gomorrah under any pretence whatever.... It will not be pleasant
to you to read this, but I must do my duty to you or I shall not
satisfy my own conscience. I therefore hope you will do your duty
to yourself, or you cannot do it to me. There is nothing on earth
I so much wish for as to make you _a man_, a good man, a useful
man, and consequently a happy man.”[330]
The father’s anxieties abated with time; the son applied himself
assiduously to French and German, and gave promise of becoming a man of
ability and character. Writing to his friend Matthews, Boulton said--“Matt
is a tolerable good chemist.... He hath behaved very well, and I shall be
glad when the time arrives for him to assist me in the business.” In the
summer of 1788, young Boulton paid his father a holiday visit at Soho,
returning again to Paris to finish his studies. Writing of his departure,
to Matthews in London, the father said--“I hope that my son is set off
for Dover: my heart overflows with blessings and love to him.”[331]
[330] Boulton to his son, 19th December, 1787.
[331] Boulton to Matthews, 25th August, 1788. In a letter dated
the preceding day, he wrote--“I have been exceedingly harassed
last week, have many letters before me unanswered. I cannot
sleep at nights, and the room I write in is so hot by the
fire-engine chimney as to relax me, and my head is distracted by
the noise of the engine, by the making and riveting of boilers,
and by a constant knocking at my door by somebody or other;
but I believe and suspect that the separation of my son from me
contributes more to the oppression of my spirits than anything
else.”
The education of young Watt was equally well cared for. After leaving
school at Birmingham, his father sent him for a year to Mr. Wilkinson’s
ironworks at Bersham, to learn carpentry in the pattern shop.[332] He
then returned to his father’s, from whence he was sent to school at
Geneva, where he remained for three years perfecting himself in the modern
languages. On his return to England in 1788, we find Boulton writing
to Mr. Barrow of Manchester, asking him to obtain a position for young
Watt in some respectable counting-house, with a view to his acquiring
a thorough commercial training. He was eventually placed in the house
of Messrs. Taylor and Maxwell, where he remained for about two years,
improving himself in his knowledge of business affairs. His father’s
reputation and standing, as well as his own education and accomplishments,
served to introduce the young gentleman to many friends in Manchester;
and, although far from extravagant in his habits, he shortly found that
the annual sum allowed him by his father was insufficient to pay for his
board, clothing, and lodging, and at the same time enable him to keep
clear of debt. Knowing Boulton’s always open hand and heart, and his
sympathy for young people, the embarrassed youth at once applied to him
for help. Why he did not apply to his father will be best understood from
his own letter:--
[332] “I have sent my son to Mr. Wilkinson’s ironworks at Bersham,
in Wales, where he is to study practical book-keeping, geometry,
and algebra, at his leisure hours; and three hours in the day
he works in a carpenter’s shop. I intend he should stay there a
year; what I shall do with him next I know not, but I intend to
fit him for some employment not so precarious as my own.”--Watt
to Mrs. Campbell, 30th May, 1784.
“I am at this moment,” he explained, “on the best footing possible
with my father, but were I to inform him of my necessities, I
do not know what would be the consequence. Not that I suppose
the money in itself would be an object to him, but because he
would look upon it in the light of encouraging what he would call
my extravagances. Never having been a young man himself, he is
unacquainted with the inevitable expenses which attend my time
of life, when one is obliged to keep good company, and does not
wish to act totally different from other young men. My father’s
reputation, and his and my own station in life, require that I
should live at least on a decent footing. I am not conscious of
having committed any foolish extravagances, and I have avoided
company as much as possible; but I have also constantly avoided
the reputation of avarice, or of acting meanly on any occasion.
My father, unfortunately for me, measures the present times and
circumstances by those when he was of my age, without making the
proper allowances for their immense disparity; consequently it is
in vain for me to endeavour to convince him of the necessity of
my conduct.”[333]
[333] Watt, jun., to Boulton, 4th December, 1789.
He concluded by expressing his sense of Mr. Boulton’s many friendly acts
towards him, and confessing that there was no other person on whom he
could so confidently rely for help in his emergency. The reply of Boulton
was all that he could desire. With sound fatherly advice,[334] such as he
would have given to his own son under similar circumstances, he sent him
a draft for 50_l._, the amount required by young Watt to clear him of his
debts.
[334] Mr. Boulton having been absent at Bath, some time elapsed
before young Watt’s letter reached him. Receiving no reply, the
youth became apprehensive that his letter had fallen into his
father’s hands, and wrote a second letter expressing his fears.
Thus Boulton replied to both letters at the same time, informing
his correspondent for his satisfaction that they had reached
him “unopened.” He proceeded--
“I now send agreeably to your request, my draft for
50_l._--payable to myself, that I might thereby conceal
your name from all persons; and you may tranquillise
yourself in respect to your father, as I promise you he
shall not know aught of the transaction.
“Although I would not willingly give you pain, yet I must
honestly tell you that I am not very sorry you experienced
some pain and anxiety by my delay; that you may not only
feel how uncomfortable it is to be in debt, but that you
may experience ere long how pleasant and how cheerful
is independence, which no man can possess who is in that
condition.
“It is possible your father’s ideas may be too limited in
regard to the _quantum_ necessary for your expenses; but
I think it equally probable that yours may be too diffuse,
and therefore can’t help wishing it in my power to expand
the one and contract the other.
“I know and speak from experience, that the principal
articles of expenditure in the generality of young men
who live in large towns are such as produce the least
additions to their happiness or reputation; for which as
well as for some others I know of, I cannot help urging
you to _cut your coat according to your cloth_, as the
sure means of preserving the good opinion of your father,
and as the most likely to induce him to open his hand more
liberally to you.
“It’s a subject I can’t speak to him upon without raising
his suspicions, but you may state to him such arguments
as may seem meet to yourself in favour of a further
allowance, and if he speaks to me upon the subject, I will
do the best I can for you.
“I wish you to keep in view that all our great Cornish
profits have died away till now they are very small,--that
your father is building an expensive house,--and that he
is married. For these and other reasons, I wish you to
alter the scale of your expenses, as the surest means
of securing your credit and your happiness, which I am
desirous of promoting or I should not have expressed
myself so freely and so unreservedly....
“I remain, dear Watt,
“Your faithful and affectionate friend,
“MATTHEW BOULTON.”
--Boulton to Watt, junr., 26th December, 1789. Boulton
MSS.
Among the friendships which he formed at Manchester, was one of an
intimate character with Mr. Cooper, a gentleman engaged in an extensive
business, fond of books, and a good practical chemist. We find young
Watt requesting Boulton to recommend to Mr. Cooper “a person to keep
his library in order and to make experiments for him, he not having time
enough to attend to the details of them himself.”[335] Cooper was besides
a keen politician, and took an active interest in the discussion of the
important questions then agitating the public mind. Watt was inflamed by
the enthusiasm of his friend, and with the ardour of youth entered warmly
into his views as to the regeneration of man and the reconstruction of
society.
[335] Watt, junr. to Boulton, 26th March, 1789.
Mrs. Schimmelpenninck has, in her autobiography, given a vivid picture
of the interest excited in the circle of friends amongst whom she moved,
by the thrilling events then occurring in France, and which extended
even to the comparatively passionless philosophers of the Lunar Society.
At one of the meetings held at her father’s house in the summer of 1788
“Mr. Boulton,” she says, “presented to the company his son, just returned
from a long sojourn at Paris. I well remember my astonishment at his
full dress in the highest adornment of Parisian fashion; but I noticed,
as a remarkable thing, that the company (which consisted of some of the
first men in Europe) all with one accord gathered round him, and asked
innumerable questions, the drift of which I did not fully understand.
It was wonderful to me to see Dr. Priestley, Dr. Withering, Mr. Watt,
Mr. Boulton himself, and Mr. Keir, manifest the most intense interest,
each according to his prevailing characteristics, as they almost hung
upon his words; and it was impossible to mistake the indications of deep
anxiety, hope, fear, curiosity, ardent zeal, or thoughtful gravity, which
alternately marked their countenances, as well as those of my own parents.
My ears caught the words ‘Marie Antoinette,’ ‘The Cardinal de Rohan,’
‘diamond necklace,’ ‘famine,’ ‘discontent among the people,’ ‘sullen
silence instead of shouts of “Vive le Roi!”’ All present seemed to give
a fearful attention. Why, I did not then well know, and, in a day or two,
these things were almost forgotten by me; but the rest of the party heard,
no doubt, in this young man’s narrative, the distant, though as yet faint
rising of the storm which, a year later, was to burst upon France and,
in its course, to desolate Europe.”[336] A few short months passed, and
the reign of brotherhood began. “One evening, towards the end of July,”
continues Mrs. Schimmelpenninck, “we saw at a distance a vehicle (usually
employed to carry servants to town or church) returning at more than its
usual speed. After some minutes the door of the drawing-room opened, and
in burst Harry Priestley, a youth of sixteen or seventeen, waving his hat,
and crying out, ‘Hurrah! Liberty, Reason, brotherly love for ever! Down
with kingcraft and priestcraft. The majesty of the people for ever! France
is free, the Bastille is taken!’”[337] “I have seen,” she adds, “the
reception of the victory of Waterloo and of the carrying of the Reform
Bill; but I never saw joy comparable in its intensity and universality to
that occasioned by the early promise of the French Revolution.”
[336] ‘Life of Mary Ann Schimmelpenninck,’ 3rd ed., 1859, pp.
125–6.
[337] Ibid., p. 181.
The impressionable mind of Dr. Priestley was moved in an extraordinary
degree by the pregnant events which followed each other in quick
succession at Paris; and he entered with zeal into the advocacy of the
doctrines of liberty, equality, and fraternity, so vehemently promulgated
by the French “friends of man.” His chemical pursuits were for a time
forgotten, and he wrote and preached like one possessed, of human
brotherhood, and of the downfall of tyranny and priestcraft. He hailed
with delight the successive acts of the National Assembly abolishing
monarchy, nobility, church, corporations, and other long established
institutions. He had already been long and hotly engaged in polemical
discussions with the local clergy on disputed points of faith; and now he
addressed a larger audience in a work which he published in answer to Mr.
Burke’s famous attack on the ‘French Revolution.’ Burke, in consequence,
attacked him in the House of Commons; while the French Revolutionists on
the other hand hailed him as a brother, and admitted him to the rights of
French citizenship.[338]
[338] “The address of the Société des Amis de la Constitution
de Bourdeaux” to the Revolutionary Society in London, dated
the 21st May, 1791, contains the following passage:--“Le jour
consacré à porter le deuil de M. Price [the Rev. Dr. Price
recently dead,--an ardent admirer of the French Revolution in
its early stages], nous avons entendu la lecture du Discours de
M. l’Evêque d’Autun sur la Liberté des Cultes: on nous a fait
ensuite le rapport des ouvrages de MM. Priestley et Payne qui
ont vengé M. Price des ouvrages de M. Burke; et c’est ainsi
que nous avons fait son oraison funèbre. Peut-être, Messieurs,
apprendrez vous avec quelque intérêt, que nous avons inscrit
dans la liste de nos Membres les noms de MM. Payne et Priestley;
c’est l’hommage de notre estime, et l’estime d’hommes libres a
toujours son prix.”
[Illustration: BURNING OF DR. PRIESTLEY’S HOUSE AT FAIRHILL.[339]]
These proceedings concentrated on Dr. Priestley an amount of local
exasperation that shortly after burst forth in open outrage. On the
14th of July, 1791, a public dinner was held at the principal hotel to
celebrate the second anniversary of the French Revolution. About eighty
gentlemen were present, but Priestley was not of the number. A mob
collected outside, and after shouting “Church and King,” they proceeded to
demolish the inn windows. The magistrates shut their eyes to the riotous
proceedings, if they did not actually connive at them. A cry was raised,
“To the New Meeting-house,” the chapel in which Priestley ministered; and
thither the mob surged. The door was at once burst open, and the place set
on fire. They next gutted the old Meeting-house, and made a bonfire of the
pews and bibles in the burying-ground. It was growing dusk, but the fury
of the mob had not abated. They made at once for Dr. Priestley’s house
at Fairhill, about a mile and a half distant. The Doctor and his family
had escaped about half an hour before their arrival; and the house was
at their mercy. They broke in at once, emptied the cellars, smashed the
furniture, tore up the books in the library, destroyed the philosophical
and chemical apparatus in the laboratory, and ended by setting fire to
the house. The roads for miles round were afterwards found strewed with
shreds of the valuable manuscripts in which were recorded the results of
twenty years labour and study,--a loss which Priestley continued bitterly
to lament until the close of his life.
[339] The representation given above of Dr. Priestley’s house is
taken from a rare book, entitled ‘Views of the Ruins of the
principal Houses destroyed during the Riots at Birmingham,
1791.’ London, 1792.
Thus an utter wreck was made of the philosopher’s dwelling at Fairhill.
The damage done was estimated at upwards of 4000_l._, of which the
victim recovered little more than one-half from the county. The next
day, and the next, and the next, the mob continued to run riot, burning
and destroying. On the second day, about noon, they marched to Easyhill
and attacked and demolished the mansion of Mr. Ryland, one of the most
munificent benefactors of the town. Bordesley Hall, the mansion of Mr.
Taylor, the banker, was next sacked and fired. The shop of the estimable
William Hutton, the well-known bookseller and author, was next broken
open and stripped of everything that could be carried away; and from his
shop in the town they proceeded to his dwelling-house at Bennett’s Hill
in the country, and burnt it to the ground.[340] On the third day, six
other houses were sacked and destroyed; three of them were blazing at the
same time. On the fourth day, which was a Sunday, the rioters dispersed in
bands over the neighbourhood, levying contributions in money and drink;
one body of them burning on their way the Dissenting chapel-house and
minister’s dwelling-house at Kingswood, seven miles off. Other Dissenters,
of various persuasions, farmers, shopkeepers, and others, had their houses
broken into and robbed in open day. It was not until the Sunday evening
that three troops of the Fifteenth Light Dragoons entered Birmingham
amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants, who welcomed them as
deliverers. At the instant of their arrival, the mob had broken into Dr.
Withering’s house at Edgbaston Hall, and were rioting in his wine-cellars,
but when they heard that “the soldiers” had come at last, they slunk away
in various directions.
[340] “At midnight,” says Hutton, “I could see from my house the
flames of Bordesley Hall rise with dreadful aspect. I learned
that after I quitted Birmingham the mob attacked my house
there three times. My son bought them off repeatedly; but in
the fourth, which began about nine at night, they laboured
till eight the next morning, when they had so completely
ravaged my dwelling that I write this narrative in a house
without furniture, without roof, door, chimneypiece, window,
or window-frame.”--‘The Life of William Hutton,’ written by
himself. London, 1816.
The members of the Lunar Society, or “the Lunatics,” as they were
popularly called, were especially marked for attack during the riots. A
common cry among the mob was “No philosophers--Church and King for ever!”
and some persons, to escape their fury, even painted “No philosophers”
on the fronts of their houses! There could be no doubt as to the meaning
of this handwriting on the wall. Priestley’s house had been sacked, and
Withering’s plundered. Boulton and Watt were not without apprehensions
that an attack would be made upon them, as the head and front of the
“Philosophers” of Birmingham. They accordingly prepared for the worst;
called their workmen together, pointed out to them the criminality of the
rioters’ proceedings, and placed arms in their hands on their promising
to do their utmost to defend the premises if attacked. In the mean time
everything portable was packed up and ready to be removed at a moment’s
notice. Thus four days of terror passed, but the mob came not; Watt
attributing the safety of Soho to the fact that most of the Dissenters
lived in another direction.[341]
[341] “Though our principles, which are well known, as friends to
the established government and enemies of republican principles,
should have been our protection from a mob whose watchword was
Church and King, yet our safety was principally owing to most
of the Dissenters living south of the town; for after the first
moments they did not seem over nice in their discrimination
of religion and principles. I, among others, was pointed out
as a Presbyterian, though I never was in a meeting-house in
Birmingham, and Mr. Boulton is well known as a Churchman. We had
everything most portable packed up, fearing the worst. However,
all is well with us.”--Watt to De Luc, 19th July, 1791.
Many of the rioters were subsequently apprehended, and several of
them were hanged; but the damage inflicted on those whose houses had
been sacked was irreparable, and could not be compensated. As for Dr.
Priestley, he shook the dust of Birmingham from his feet, and fled to
London; from thence emigrating to America, where he died in 1804.
While such was the blind fury of the populace of Birmingham, the
principles of the French Revolution found adherents in all parts of
England. Clubs were formed in London and the principal provincial
towns, and a brisk correspondence was carried on between them and the
Revolutionary leaders of France. Among those invested with the rights
of French citizenship were Dr. Priestley, Mr. Wilberforce, Thomas Tooke,
and Mr. (afterwards Sir) James Mackintosh. Thomas Paine and Dr. Priestley
were chosen members of the National Convention; and though the former took
his seat for Calais, the latter declined, on the ground of his inability
to speak the language sufficiently. Among those carried away by the
political epidemic of the time, were young James Watt and his friend Mr.
Cooper of Manchester. In 1792 they were deputed, by the “Constitutional
Society” of that town, to proceed to Paris and present an address of
congratulation to the Jacobin Club, then known as the “Société des Amis
de la Constitution.”[342] While at Paris, young Watt seems to have taken
an active part in the fiery agitation of the time. He was on intimate
terms with the Jacobin leaders. Southey says that he was even the means
of preventing a duel between Danton and Robespierre, to the former of whom
he acted as second.[343] Robespierre afterwards took occasion to denounce
both Cooper and Watt as secret emissaries of Pitt, on which young Watt
sprang into the tribune, pushing Robespierre aside, and defended himself
in a strain of vehement eloquence, which completely carried the assembly
with him. From that moment, however, he felt his life to be unsafe, and
he fled from Paris without a passport, never resting until he had passed
the frontier and found refuge in Italy.
[342] The ‘Discours’ delivered by the MM. Cooper and Watt (1792)
may be seen at the British Museum.
[343] ‘Life of Southey,’ vi. 209.
The public part he had taken in French Revolutionary politics could
not fail to direct attention to him on this side of the channel. His
appearance at a public procession, in which he carried the British
colours, to celebrate the delivery of some soldiers released from
the galleys, was vehemently denounced by Mr. Burke in the House of
Commons. The notoriety which he had thus achieved, gave his father great
anxiety; and after young James’s return to England in 1794, he was under
considerable apprehensions for his safety. Several members of the London
political Societies had been apprehended and lodged in the Tower, and Watt
feared lest his son might in some way be compromised by his correspondence
with those societies. Boulton, then in London, informed him of the severe
measures of the Government, and of the intended suspension of the Habeas
Corpus Act; to which Watt replied,--
“I thank you for your intelligence, which I have communicated
with due caution to Mr. S. and my son. The former says he has
had no correspondence whatever with any of these societies, nor
has frequented any here,--that he may have uttered unguarded or
foolish words in private companies, but that he knows nothing of,
nor is he concerned in, any plot or political scheme whatsoever.
The latter says he never corresponded with any of them at any
time, though he once executed a commission for one of them, and
sent his answer to Mr. Tr.,--that for these two years he has had
no sort of connexion with any of them, and for more than a year
all his correspondence has been recommending his friends not
to intermeddle with public affairs. As he proposes to see you
to-morrow, he will explain himself, and I need not bid you council
him for the best.”[344]
A few days later, his apprehensions of danger to his son not being
removed, he wrote Boulton again as follows:--
“I am made very uneasy on account of James by this Bastille
Act[345] now (I fancy) passed, and which I cannot help thinking
_un peu trop_. I submit whether it might not be best for you to
endeavour to make his peace with M[inist]ry by a candid avowal
of his errors, and of his subsequent change of sentiment and
renunciation of all correspondence with these traitors. In
the mean time he had better make the best of his way to here,
Liverpool, or Scotland; from either of the latter he might find
his way to America if necessary. In any case let him not go in
company with any of the persons who have laid themselves open to
suspicion. I would not, however, have him rashly run out of the
country. M[inist]ry must know who have been the active abettors
of the plot, and, if they act wisely, will not molest those who
have seen their error or have had the good sense to resist all
temptations of engaging in plots against the peace of the country,
whatever their opinions about parliamentary representation might
be.... Query, whether Denmark, Hamburg, or Norway, might not be
preferable to America, lest we go to war with the latter. If you
find he is obnoxious, his letters to me should be directed by
another hand, and not signed.”[346]
[344] Watt to Boulton, 16th May, 1794. Boulton MSS.
[345] The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended on the 23rd May, 1794.
[346] Watt to Boulton, 19th May, 1794. Boulton MSS.
Four days later, Watt’s alarm was not abated by the appearance in
Birmingham of king’s messengers making seizures of persons concerned in
seditious correspondence. “They have taken up,” he wrote, “one Pare, who
kept a reforming club at his house, and one or two others. The soldiers
were ordered under arms to prevent tumult. I hear also that Wilkinson has
been threatened with a mob at Bradley, and has prepared to defend himself
with cannon, pikes, &c., but that matters are now quiet there. In respect
to James, _you_ must advise him, I cannot; but I think he would be better
at home, following his business, than elsewhere.”[347] James eventually
returned to Birmingham, where we find him from this time forward taking
an increasingly active part in the affairs of the concern. He took entire
charge of the manufacture of the letter-copying machines, now become a
considerable branch of the business; and he shortly after entered the
engine firm as a partner, in conjunction with Mr. Boulton’s eldest son,
Matthew Robinson.
[347] Watt to Boulton, 23rd May, 1794. Young Watt continued
to sympathise with his political friends; as we find him,
some months later, writing Matthew R. Boulton from London as
follows:--“The citizens here are all in very high spirits since
the late trials; and I had the honour of dining with two of
the _acquitted felons_ on Sunday last.” Watt, junr., having
remained for some time in London on business connected with the
prosecution of Bull and others for infringement of his father’s
patent, Boulton, junr., kept up an active correspondence with
him on the affairs of the firm. In one letter (19th February,
1795), after discussing various matters of detail relating to
the letter-copying machine and engine business, Boulton entreats
his friend to send him down a supply of hair-powder. “I have to
intrust to your care,” he says, “the execution of an important
commission on the part of the ladies and myself. The report
of a scarcity of hair-powder has caused great consternation
amongst the beaux and belles here, and we beg of you to preserve
for us 1 cwt. of that necessary article.” To which Watt, jun.
replied,--“Your new order is in train, so that I hope (whatever
the poor may suffer by the destruction of so scarce an article
of nourishment) your aristocratical vanity will be gratified,
with only the additional sacrifice of one guinea per annum to
your immaculate friend Mr. Pitt, for the purpose of carrying on
this ‘just and necessary war!’ Under the existing circumstances,
I am doubtful whether I shall not sacrifice my aristocratical
appendage [queues being then the appendages of gentlemen],
as it goes much against my inclination to throw away my money
at this moment of personal poverty, or to contribute any sum,
however small, to the support of measures which I reprobate _in
toto_. On the other hand, however, I do say that, of all the
taxes which have ever been imposed within my memory, this is
the most politic and the least likely to be burdensome to the
poor.”--Boulton MSS.
The infusion of young blood had the effect of imparting new vigour to all
the branches of manufacture at Soho, and at the same time of relieving
the senior partners from a considerable amount of labour and anxiety. The
business was now in a very thriving state; there was abundance of orders
for engines coming in; and the principal difficulty of the firm was in
finding skilled workmen enough to execute them. Thus we find Watt junior
writing to Boulton junior in January, 1795,--“We must have additional men,
rather too many than too few, until we have got the start of our orders,
for without that we shall always feel ourselves embarrassed and clogged.
I shall therefore desire Rennie to renew his applications at Lancaster,
which appear as yet to have been unsuccessful.”
The junior members of the firm were also useful in protecting the engine
patent right, the infringement of which had become general all over the
country. This was a disagreeable part of their business; but, if not
attended to, the patent must be given up as worthless. The steam-engine
was now regarded as an indispensable power in manufacturing operations.
It had become employed in all important branches of industry; and it
was, of course, the interest of the manufacturers to avoid the payment
of dues wherever they could. An instance of this evasion was detected at
the Bowling Ironworks near Bradford, and notice was given of proceedings
against the Company for recovery of dues. On this the Bowling Company
offered to treat, and young Watt went down to Leeds for the purpose of
meeting the representatives of the Bowling Company on the subject. On
the 24th February, 1796, he wrote his friend Matthew Robinson Boulton as
follows:--
“Inclosed you have a copy of the treaty of peace, not amity,
concluded at Leeds, on Saturday last, between me, Minister
Plenipotentiary to your Highnesses on the one part, and the
Bowling Pirates in person on the other part. I hope you will
ratify the terms, as you will see they are founded entirely upon
the principle of indemnity for the past and security for the
future. The diameter and length of stroke of their different
engines, four in number, I have; the times of their commencing
to work will be sent you by Mr. Paley; and the amounts of the
premiums may be definitively calculated upon my arrival, which
will be about the latter end of this week.”
Another engine constructed after Watt’s patent was discovered working
at a mill at Carke, in Cartmel, Lancashire. Mr. Stockdale, son of the
proprietor, tells the following story of its detection. He states that the
first engine employed at the works was one on Newcomen’s construction,
which was used to pump water into the reservoir which supplied the
water-power by which the mill was driven. It was then determined to apply
the steam-power direct to the machinery, and a new engine was ordered from
Manchester, without communicating with the patentees. The mill was in full
work when a stranger called, representing that he belonged to the concern
of Boulton and Watt, and requesting to inspect the engine. The request was
complied with, and Mr. Stockdale afterwards invited him to stay to dinner;
but it was the dearest dinner he ever gave, as only a few weeks later a
claim for 1800_l._ was made by Boulton and Watt for dues upon the engine,
which was, however, eventually compromised by the payment of 400_l._
The most unscrupulous pirates, however, were the Cornishmen who,
emboldened by the long quiescence of Boulton and Watt, and knowing that
the patent had only five or six more years to run, believed that they
might set the patentees at open defiance, which they proceeded to do.
Notwithstanding the agreements entered into and ratified on both sides,
they refused point blank to pay further dues; and Boulton and Watt were
thus at last driven to have recourse to the powers of the law. Had they
remained passive, it might have been construed into a tacit admission
that the patent right had from the first been indefensible, and that the
sums which they had up to that time levied for the use of their engine
had been wrongfully paid to them. But neither had ceased to have perfect
faith in the validity of their patent, and both determined, even at this
late stage, to defend it. “The rascals,” wrote Watt to Boulton, “seem to
have been going on as if the patent were their own.... We have tried every
lenient means with them in vain; and since the fear of God has no effect
upon them, we must try what the fear of the devil can do.”[348] Legal
proceedings were begun accordingly. The two actions on which the issues
were tried were those of Boulton and Watt _v._ Bull, and Boulton and Watt
_v._ Hornblower and Maberley; and they were fought on both sides with
great determination. The proceedings extended over several years, being
carried from court to court; but the result was decisive in both cases in
favour of Boulton and Watt. It was not until January, 1799, that the final
decision of the judges was given;[349] almost on the very eve of expiry
of the patent, which had not then a full year to run. It was not, however,
with a view to the future that these costly, anxious, and protracted legal
proceedings had been carried on, but mainly for the recovery of dues under
existing agreements, and for dues on engines erected in various quarters
in infringement of the patent. Most of the Cornish adventurers had paid
nothing for years. Thus Poldice had paid nothing since October, 1793, and
was in arrear 2330_l._ Wheal Gons had paid nothing since May, 1793, and
was in arrear 4290_l._ The Wheal Treasure adventurers, and many others,
had set Boulton and Watt at open defiance, and paid nothing at all.
[348] Watt to Boulton, 20th March, 1796.
[349] “We have WON THE CAUSE hollow,” Watt wrote from London. “All
the Judges have given their opinions carefully in our favour,
and have passed judgment. Some of them made better arguments
in our favour than our own counsel, for Rous’s speech was too
long and too divergent. I most sincerely give you joy.”--Watt
to Boulton, 25th January, 1799.
On the issue of the proceedings against Bull, Boulton and Watt called
upon the Mining Companies to “cash up,” and arrears were shortly
collected, though with considerable difficulty, to the amount of about
30,000_l._ Young Boulton went into Cornwall for the purpose of arranging
the settlements, and managed the business with great ability. “I am now
to congratulate you,” Watt wrote to his partner from Glasgow, whither
he had gone on a visit, “on the success of Mr. R. Boulton’s very able
transactions in Cornwall; and I hope that at last we may be freed from the
anxiety of the issue of law which has so long attended us, and enjoy in
peace the fruits of our labours. When you write to Mr. B. I beg you will
present my best wishes and best respects to him, expressing my warmest
approbation of his exertions.” On another occasion, while the cause was
in progress before the courts of law, Watt wrote,--“In the whole affair,
nothing was so grateful to me as the zeal of our friends and the activity
of our young men, which was unremitting.”
The senior members of the firm had for some time been gradually
withdrawing from the active management of the concern. We find Watt
writing to Dr. Black in 1798,--“In regard to the engine business, I
now take little part in it, but it goes on successfully.” Four years
later he wrote,--“Our engine trade thrives; the profits per cent. are,
however, very, very moderate; it is by the great capital and expensive
establishment of engineers, &c., that we keep it up; without our tools and
men very little could be done, as we have many competitors, some of whom
are men of abilities.” But the business was now safe in the hands of the
young and active partners, who continued to carry it on for many years,
with even greater success than their fathers had done. They reaped the
harvest of which the others had sown the seed. The patent right expired in
1800; but the business of the firm, nevertheless, became larger and more
remunerative than it had ever been before. The superior plant which they
had accumulated, their large and increasing capital, the skilled workmen
whom they had trained, and the first-class character of the work which
they turned out, gave the establishment of Boulton and Watt a prestige
which they long continued to maintain.
[Illustration: WILLIAM MURDOCK.]
The young partners had also the great advantage of the skilled heads
of the different departments, who had been trained by long and valuable
experience. For many years William Murdock was the Mentor of the firm.
Though tempting offers of partnerships were made to him, he remained loyal
to Boulton and Watt to the last. They treated him generously, and he was
satisfied to spend his life in their service. He had gradually worked
his way to the foremost place in their establishment, besides achieving
reputation as an inventor and a man of practical science. His model
locomotive of 1784 was the first machine of the kind made in this country;
and it is to be regretted that he did not pursue the subject. But Murdock
was a very modest, unambitious man, content to keep in the background, and
not possessed by that “pushing” quality which helps so many on to fortune.
We have already stated that he invented the sun and planet motion, which
was eventually adopted by Watt in preference to his own method of securing
rotary motion. His daily familiarity with pumping-engines in Cornwall also
led him to suggest and introduce many improvements in their details, which
Boulton and Watt were always ready to adopt. He was a great favourite in
Cornwall, and not less esteemed for his estimable and manly qualities than
for his mechanical skill. When the adventurers heard of his intention to
return to Soho, in 1798, they offered him 1000_l._ a year to continue at
the mines, but he could not be tempted to remain.
Returned to Soho, Murdock was invested with the general supervision
and management of the mechanical department, in which he proved of
essential value. He was regarded as “the right hand” of Boulton and
Watt. He proceeded to introduce great improvements in the manufacture of
the engines, contriving numerous machines for casting, boring, turning,
and fitting the various parts together with greater precision. His plan
of boring cylinders by means of an endless screw (turned by the moving
power) working into a toothed wheel, whose axis carried the cutter head,
instead of by spur gear, was found very useful in practice, and produced
a much more smooth and steady motion of the machine. As early as 1785, he
invented the first oscillating engine,[350] which still continues in use
in various improved forms. His invention of the double D slide valve, in
place of the four poppet valves in Watt’s double engine,[351] was also
found of great value; saving steam, and ensuring greater simplicity in
the construction and working of the engine. In his oscillating engine the
motion is given to the slide valve by the oscillation of the cylinder, and
engines of small power still continue to be worked in this manner. Another
of his improvements in engine construction was his method of casting the
steam cases for cylinders in one piece, instead of in separate segments
bolted together, according to the previous practice. He also invented a
rotary engine of an ingenious construction; but though he had one erected
to drive the machines in his private workshop, where it continued employed
for about thirty years, it never came into general use.[352] Murdock had a
good deal of the temperament of Watt: he was always scheming improvements,
and was most assiduous in carrying them out. In such cases he would
not trust to subordinates, but executed his designs himself wherever
practicable; and he sometimes carried his labours so far into the night
that the rising sun found him at his anvil or his turning lathe.
[350] The model was carefully preserved and exhibited with pride
by his son, in whose house at Handsworth we saw it in 1857.
[351] Watt said to Robert Hart, “When Mr. Murdock introduced
the slide valve, I was very much against it, as I did not
think it so good as the poppet valve, but I gave in from its
simplicity.”--Hart, ‘Reminiscences,’ &c.
[352] These several inventions were embodied by him in a patent
taken out in 1799.
Murdock is also entitled to the merit of inventing lighting by gas. The
inflammable qualities of the air obtained by distillation of coal had
long been known,[353] but Murdock was the first to apply the knowledge
to practical uses. The subject engaged much of his attention in the year
1792, when he resided at Redruth. As his days were fully occupied in
attending to his employers’ engine business, it was only in the evenings,
after the day’s work was over, that he could pursue the subject. It is
not improbable that he was led to undertake the investigation by Mr.
Boulton’s chemical enthusiasm, which communicated itself to all with whom
he came in contact. It will be remembered that the latter occupied much
of his leisure at Cosgarne in analysing earths, minerals, and vegetable
substances, trying to find out the gases they contained; and Murdock
was his zealous assistant on these occasions. In the paper which he
communicated to the Royal Society on the subject of lighting by coal-gas
in 1808, for which they awarded him their large Rumford Gold Medal, he
observed,--
[353] Burning springs, though by no means common in Europe, were
not unknown. They were kept burning by natural and spontaneous
supplies of carburetted hydrogen gas issuing from fissures in
the earth overlying beds of asphalte or coal. The inflammable
character of fire-damp and the explosions which it occasioned
in coal mines were also familiar to most persons living in
the coal-mining districts. In 1658 Mr. Thomas Shirley first
communicated to the Royal Society the result of some experiments
which he had made on the inflammable gas issuing from a well
near Wigan in Lancashire. Some time before 1691 the Rev. Dr.
Clayton, Dean of Kildare, made some experiments on what he
called the spirit of coal: he distilled some coal in a retort,
and, confining the gas produced thereby in a bladder, he amused
his friends by burning it as it issued from a pin-hole. In 1721
Dr. Stephen Hales found it was practicable to produce elastic
inflammable air from coal and other substances, and that nearly
one-third of Newcastle coal was drawn off in vapour, gas, &c.,
by the action of heat. In 1733 Sir James Lowther communicated
to the Royal Society a paper on the subject of the fire-damp
issuing from the shaft of a coal mine near Whitehaven, which
had been accidentally set fire to and continued to burn for
two years. Dr. Watson, Bishop of Landaff, and Dr. Priestley
of Birmingham, examined the properties of coal-gas, and made
experiments on its inflammable qualities, but pursued the
subject no further. Lord Dundonald also had been accustomed, for
the amusement of his friends, to set fire to the gas disengaged
by the burning of coal in the process of coke-making. The same
phenomena must have been observed on a large scale wherever
coke was made. Each chamber in which coal was distilled was in
point of fact a gas retort. Oil and gas were the products of the
distillation; but strange to say, although the oil was collected
and used, no heed was taken of the gas. Nor was it until Mr.
Murdock’s attention was called to the subject that lighting by
gas was proved to be practicable.
“It is now nearly sixteen years since (1792), in the course
of experiments I was making at Redruth, in Cornwall, upon the
quantities and qualities of the gas produced by distillation from
different mineral and vegetable substances, that I was induced
by some observations I had previously made upon the burning of
coal, to try the combustible property of the gases produced from
it, as well as from peat, wood, and other inflammable substances;
and being struck with the great quantities of gas which they
afforded, as well as the brilliancy of the light, and the facility
of its production, I instituted several experiments with a view of
ascertaining the cost at which it might be obtained, compared with
that of equal quantities of light yielded by oils and tallow. My
apparatus consisted of an iron retort, with tinned iron and copper
tubes, through which the gas was conducted to a considerable
distance; and there, as well as at intermediate points, was
burnt through apertures of various forms and dimensions. The
experiments were made upon coal of different qualities, which I
procured from different parts of the kingdom for the purpose of
ascertaining which would give the most economical results. The
gas was also washed with water, and other means were employed to
purify it.”[354]
[354] ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ 1808, pp. 124–132.
Murdock put his discovery to the best practical test by lighting up
his house and offices at Redruth with gas; and he had a gas lantern
constructed, with a jet attached to the bottom of the lantern and
a bladder of gas underneath, with which he lighted himself home at
night across the moors when returning from his work to his house at
Redruth.[355] On the occasion of a visit which he made to Soho in 1794,
he took the opportunity of mentioning to Mr. Watt the experiments he
had made, and their results; expressing his conviction of the superior
economy, safety, and illuminating qualities of coal-gas, compared with
oils and tallow. He then suggested that a patent should be taken out for
the application, and at various subsequent periods he urged the subject
upon the attention of his principals. But they were at the time so
harassed by litigation in connexion with their own steam-engine patent,
that they were unwilling to enter upon any new enterprise which might
possibly lead them into fresh embroilments; and nothing was done to
protect the invention.
[355] Many years later (in 1818), when Murdock was at Manchester
for the purpose of starting one of Boulton and Watt’s engines,
he was invited, with Mr. William Fairbairn, to dine at Medlock
Bank, then at some distance from the lighted part of the town.
“It was a dark winter’s night,” writes Mr. Fairbairn, our
informant, “and how to reach the house over such bad roads was
a question not easily solved. Mr. Murdock, however, fruitful
in resources, went to the Gas Works, (then established in
Manchester), where he filled a bladder which he had with him,
and placing it under his arm like a bagpipe, he discharged
through the stem of an old tobacco-pipe a stream of gas which
enabled us to walk in safety to Medlock Bank.”
On Murdock’s return to Soho in 1798, he proceeded with his investigations,
and contrived an apparatus for making, purifying, and storing the
gas on a large scale; and several of the offices in the building were
regularly lighted by its means. On the general illumination which took
place in celebration of the Peace of Amiens in 1802, the front of Soho
Manufactory was brilliantly illuminated with gas, to the astonishment and
admiration of the public. The manageableness, the safety, the economy,
and the brilliancy of the new light being thus proved, Boulton and Watt
in 1803 authorised Murdock to proceed with the general fitting up of the
manufactory with pipes and burners, and, from that date, it continued
to be regularly lit up with coal-gas. Several large firms followed
their example; amongst others Phillips and Lee, Burley, and Kennedy, at
Manchester, and Gott and Sons, at Leeds; and the manufacture of gas-making
apparatus became one of the regular branches of business at Soho. Several
years later, in 1805, when Watt went down to Glasgow, he found gas in
pretty general use.
“The new lights,” he wrote to Boulton, “are much in vogue here;
many have attempted them, and some have succeeded tolerably in
lighting their shops with them. I also hear that a cotton-mill in
this neighbourhood is lighted up with gas. A long account of the
new lights was published in the newspapers some time ago, in which
they had the candour to ascribe the invention to Mr. Murdock. From
what I have heard respecting these attempts, I think there is full
room for the Soho improvements,[356] though, when once they see
one properly executed, it will have numerous imitations.”
[356] Watt here alluded to the new machinery and plant erected
at Soho under Murdock’s directions, at a cost of about 5000_l._
for the purpose of manufacturing gas apparatus.
Several years after the introduction of the new light, a German, named
Wintzer or Winsor, brought out (in 1809) a scheme similar to one projected
in Paris by Le Bon, for lighting the streets by gas. He proposed a
Joint Stock Company, with a capital of 300,000_l._, and held forth to
subscribers the prospect of a profit of ten thousand per cent.![357]
He applied to Parliament for a Bill, against which Murdock petitioned,
and was examined before the Committee. Though they were staggered by
the crudities of Winsor, they had some difficulty even in accepting the
more modest averments of Murdock as to the uses of coal-gas for lighting
purposes. “Do you mean to tell us,” asked one member, “that it will be
possible to have a light _without a wick_?” “Yes, I do, indeed,” answered
Murdock. “Ah, my friend,” said the legislator, “you are trying to prove
too much.” It was as surprising and inconceivable to the honourable
member as George Stephenson’s subsequent evidence before a Parliamentary
Committee to the effect that a carriage might be drawn upon a railway at
the rate of twelve miles an hour _without a horse_.
[357] The invention of lighting by gas has by some writers been
erroneously attributed to Winsor. It will be observed, from
the statement in the text, that coal-gas had been in regular
use long before the appearance of his scheme, which was one
of the most crude and inflated ever brought before the public.
“The Patriotic Imperial and National Light and Heat Company,”
proposed amongst other things to aid and assist Government with
funds in times of emergency, to increase the Sinking-fund for
reducing the National Debt, to reward meritorious discoverers,
&c. &c. Some idea of the character of the project may be
formed from Mr. [Lord] Brougham’s speech in opening the
case against the Bill:--“‘The neat annual profits,’ says Mr.
Winsor, ‘agreeable to the _official experiments_’ (that is, the
experiments of Mr. Accum....) ‘amount to 229,353,627_l._’ ...
now Mr. Winsor says, that he will allow there may be an error
here, for the sake of arguing with those who still have their
doubts; and he will admit that the sum should be taken at only
one half, or 114,845,294_l._; and then giving up, to meet all
possible objections, nine-tenths of that sum, still there will
remain, to be paid to the subscribers of this Company, a yearly
profit of 570_l._ for every 5_l._ of deposit! So that upon
paying 5_l._ every subscriber is to receive 570_l._ a year for
ever, and this to the last farthing; it may increase but less it
can never be; the clear profit is always to be above 10,000_l._
per cent. upon the capital! This is pretty well, sir, one would
think. There is here estimate and statement enough to captivate
the public; but this is not all; for Mr. Winsor has taken out
a patent (of which, indeed, he has, according to his custom,
enrolled no specification, but, on the contrary, has enrolled
a surrender) for the invention of several things, and, among
others, one for rendering this gas respirable. It is not enough
that this gas (which everybody knows to be not respirable, but
as poisonous to the lungs as fixed air) should be capable of
giving light; but he thinks it also necessary to prove that it
may easily be rendered respirable; in short, that there is no
way in which it may not be used, and nothing which may not be
made of it.... In another pamphlet.... Mr. Winsor endeavours to
prove that this gas is the vital principle; that in which life
itself consists. If I had taken the trouble to go through his
publications, which I certainly have not done, it is hard to
say what I might not have discovered; but I should think the
difficulty would rather be, to find one quality which the gas
is not stated to possess.”
No wonder that strange notions were entertained about gas in those early
days. It seemed so incredible a contrivance, to make air that could be
sent along pipes for miles from the place at which it was made to the
place at which it issued as jets of fire, that it ran entirely counter to
all preconceived notions on the subject of illumination. Even Sir Humphry
Davy ridiculed the idea of lighting towns with gas, and asked one of
the projectors if it were intended to take the dome of St. Paul’s for a
gasometer; and Sir Walter Scott made many clever jokes about the absurdity
of lighting London with smoke, though he shortly after adopted the said
“smoke” for lighting up his own house at Abbotsford. It was popularly
supposed that the gas was carried along the pipes on fire, and that
hence the pipes must be intensely hot. Thus, when the House of Commons
was first lighted up with gas, the architect insisted on the pipes being
placed several inches from the wall for fear of fire, and members might be
seen applying their gloved hands to them to ascertain their temperature,
expressing the greatest surprise on their being found as cool as the
adjoining walls.[358]
[358] The first application of the “Gas-light and Coke Company”
to Parliament in 1809 for an Act proved unsuccessful, but the
“London and Westminster Chartered Gas-light and Coke Company”
succeeded in the following year. The Company, however, did
not succeed commercially, and was on the point of dissolution,
when Mr. Clegg, a pupil of Murdock, bred at Soho, undertook the
management and introduced new and improved apparatus. Mr. Clegg
first lighted with gas Mr. Ackerman’s shop in the Strand in
1810, and it was regarded as a great novelty. One lady of rank
was so much delighted with the brilliancy of the gas-lamp fixed
on the shop counter, that she asked to be allowed to carry it
home in her carriage, and offered any sum for a similar one.
Mr. Winsor by his persistent advocacy of gas-lighting, did
much to bring it into further notice; but it was Mr. Clegg’s
practical ability that mainly led to its general adoption.
When Westminster Bridge was first lit up with gas in 1812, the
lamplighters were so disgusted with it that they struck work,
and Mr. Clegg himself had to act as lamplighter.
The advantages of the new light, however, soon became generally
recognised; and gas companies were established in most of the large towns.
Had Murdock patented the invention, it must have proved exceedingly
remunerative to him; but he derived no advantage from the extended use
of the new system of lighting except the honour of having initiated
it,--though of this more than one attempt was made to deprive him. As
he himself modestly said, in his paper read before the Royal Society,
“I believe I may, without presuming too much, claim both the first idea
of applying, and the first actual application of this gas to economical
purposes.”
Murdock’s attention was, however, diverted from prosecuting his discovery
of the uses of gas to a profitable issue by his daily business, which
was of a very engrossing character. He continued, nevertheless, an almost
incessant contriver, improver, and inventor; following, like his master
Watt, the strong bent of his inclinations. One of his most cherished
schemes was the employment of compressed air as a motive power. He
contrived to work a little engine of 12-inch cylinder and 18-inch stroke,
which drove the lathe in the pattern-shop, by means of the compressed air
of the blast-engine employed in blowing the cupolas at the Soho Foundry;
and this arrangement continued in use for a period of about thirty-five
years. He also constructed a lift worked by compressed air, which raised
and lowered the castings from the Boring-mill to the level of the Foundry
and the Canal Bank.[359] He used the same kind of power to ring the bells
in his house at Sycamore Hill; and the contrivance was afterwards adopted
by Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford.[360] He experimented on the power
of high-pressure steam in impelling shot, and contrived a steam-engine
in 1803, with which he made many trials at Soho, in anticipation of
Perkins’s apparatus. He was the inventor of the well-known cast-iron
cement so extensively used in engine and machine work; and the manner in
which he was led to it affords a striking illustration of his quickness
of observation. Finding that some iron-borings and sal-ammoniac had got
accidentally mixed together in his tool-chest and rusted his saw-blade
nearly through, he took note of the circumstance, mixed the articles
in various proportions, and at last arrived at the famous cement, which
eventually became an article of extensive manufacture at the Soho works,
completely superseding the cement invented by Watt. In 1810 he took out a
patent for boring stone pipes for water, and cutting columns out of solid
blocks by one operation. In 1815 he invented an apparatus for heating the
water for the Baths at Leamington by the circulation of water through
pipes from a boiler,--a method since extensively adopted for heating
buildings and garden-houses. While occupied in erecting the apparatus at
Leamington, a heavy cast-iron plate fell upon his leg and severely crushed
it, laying him up for many months.
[359] “It consisted,” says Mr. Buckle, “of a piston working in a
cylinder 10 feet diameter in water, with a lift of 12 feet, and
raised by forcing in air from a small blowing cylinder 12 inches
diameter, 18 inches stroke, which was worked by the gearing in
the boring-mill.” Paper read by the late William Buckle at the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers at Birmingham, 23rd October,
1850.
[360] Lockhart’s ‘Life of Scott,’ one vol. edition, p. 500.
His ingenuity was constantly at work, even upon matters which lay entirely
outside his special calling. Mr. Fairbairn informs us that he contrived a
variety of curious machines for consolidating peat moss, finely ground and
pulverised, under immense pressure, and moulding it into beautiful medals,
armlets, and necklaces, which took the most brilliant polish, and had the
appearance of the finest jet. Observing that fish-skins might be used as
an economical substitute for isinglass, he went up to London to explain
to the brewers the best method of preparing and using them.[361] While in
town on this errand, it occurred to him that there was an enormous waste
of power in the feet of men and animals treading the streets of London,
which might be economised and made productive; and he conceived the idea
of using the streets as a grand treadmill, under which the waste power
was to be stored up by mechanical methods, and turned to account! Another
of his ingenious schemes--though then thought equally impracticable with
that last mentioned--was his proposed method of transmitting letters and
packages through a tube exhausted by an air-pump. This idea seems to have
led to the projection of the Atmospheric Railway, the success of which, so
far as it went, was again due to the practical ability of Murdock’s pupil
Samuel Clegg. Though the atmospheric railway was eventually abandoned,
it is remarkable that Murdock’s original idea has since been revived, and
practised with success, by the London Pneumatic Despatch Company.
[361] Mr. Buckle, in the memoir above cited, says,--“So completely
was he absorbed at all times with the subject he had in hand,
that he was quite regardless of everything else. When in London
explaining to the brewers the nature of his substitute for
isinglass, he occupied handsome apartments. He, however, little
respected the splendour of his drawing-room, and, fancying
himself in his laboratory at Soho, he proceeded with his
experiments quite careless and unconscious of the mischief he
was doing. One morning his landlady calling in to receive his
orders, was horrified to see her magnificent paper-hangings
covered with wet fish-skins hung up to dry; and he was caught
in the act of pinning up a cod’s skin to undergo the same
process. Whether the lady fainted or not is not on record, but
the immediate ejectment of the gentleman and his fish was the
consequence.”
Such is a brief sketch of the life and works of this estimable and
ingenious mechanic, for so many years the mainstay of the Soho works.
Mr. Fairbairn, who first made his friendship at Manchester in 1816,
speaks of him as one of the most distinguished veterans in mechanical
engineering then living,--“tall and well-proportioned in figure, with a
most intelligent and benevolent expression of countenance.” He was a man
of robust constitution, and though he sorely taxed it, he lived to an old
age, surviving the elder Boulton and Watt by many years.[362]
[362] The young partners regarded him with a degree of
affection and veneration, which often shows itself in their
correspondence. Towards the later years of his life Mr.
Murdock’s faculties gradually decayed, and he wholly retired
from the business of Soho, dying at his house at Sycamore Hill,
Handsworth, on the 15th Nov., 1839, in his 85th year.
[Illustration: MURDOCK’S HOUSE, SYCAMORE HILL, HANDSWORTH.[363]]
[363] The first piece of iron-toothed gearing ever cast is
placed on the lawn in front of Murdock’s villa. The teeth are
of somewhat unequal form, and the casting is rough--perhaps
it has been exposed to rough usage. It bears the following
inscription:--“This Pinton was cast at Carron Ironworks for John
Murdock, of Bellow Mill, Ayrshire, A.D. 1760, being the first
tooth-gearing ever used in millwork in Great Britain.”