LIVES BOULTON AND WATT BY THE SAME AUTHOR. LIVES OF BRITISH ENGINEERS, from the Earliest Times to the Death of Robert Stephenson ; with an Account of their Principal Works, and a HISTORY OF INLAND COMMUNICATION m BRITAIN. With Portraits and 270 Woodcuts. 3 Vols. 8vo. 63s. SELF-HELP ; WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHARACTER AND CON- DUCT. Post 8vo. 6s. ' SELF-HELP/ ou CARACTERE, CONDUITE ET PERSEVERANCE, Illustres a 1'aide de Biographic. Traduit de 1'Anglais par ALFRED TALAN- DIEB sur le texte revu et corrige par 1'Auteur. Post 8vo. 5s. INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY: IRON-WORKERS and TOOL- MAKERS. A Companion Volume to ' Self-Help.' Post 8vo. 6s. JAMES BRINDLEY AND THE EARLY ENGINEERS. [Abridged from ' Lives of the Engineers.'] With Illustrations. Post Svo. 6s. STORY OF THE LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON INCLUDING A MEMOIR OF HIS SON ROBERT STEPHENSON. [Abridged fTOTK Lives of the Engineers.'] With Illustrations. Post Svo. 6s. WORKMEN'S EARNINGS, SAVINGS,-AND STRIKES: Reprinted from the ' Quarterly Review.' Post Svo. Is. 6d. JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. bv W.Ho-H', after th& porfrait ~bv Sir 1/9 1'u.bU.sh.Bd. by Joht LIVES OF BOULTON AND WATT PRINCIPALLY FROM THE ORIGINAL SOHO MSS. COMPRISING ALSO A HISTORY OF THE INVENTION AND INTRODUCTION OF THE STEAM-ENGINE. BY SAMUEL SMILES, AUTHOR OF ' INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY,' ETC. LONDON: JOHN MUKKAY, ALBEMAELE STKEET. 1865. The right of Tiunslation -is ftscfced. LONDON: PRINTKD BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STANFORD STREET, AND CHARING CROSS. /J 140 P HE FACE. THE present volume concludes the author's 'Lives of the Engineers.' Its preparation was begun many years since. The favourable reception given to the ' Life of George Stephenson,' the principal improver and introducer of the locomotive engine, encouraged the author to follow it by a Life of James Watt, the prin- cipal inventor and introducer of the condensing engine. On making inquiries, however, he found that the subject had already been taken in hand by J. P. Muir- head, Esq., the literary executor of the late Mr. Watt, of Aston Hall, near Birmingham. As Mr. Muirhead was in all respects entitled to precedence, and was, moreover, in possession of the best sources of informa- tion, the author's contemplated Life of Watt was abandoned, and he satisfied himself with embodying the substance of the materials he had collected in a review of Mr. Muirhead's work, which appeared in the ' Quarterly Eeview' for July, 1858. Having recently, however, through the kindness of M. P. W. Boulton, Esq., of Tew Park, Oxon, been enabled to examine the extensive collection of docu- ments brought from Soho, including the original corre- spondence between Watt and Small, between Watt and Boulton, and between the latter and his numerous vi PREFACE. intimate friends and business correspondents, it has appeared to the author that, notwithstanding the valu- able publications of Mr. Muirhead, the story of the life of Watt is one that will well bear to be told again, in connexion with the life and labours of Matthew Boulton of Soho. The two men were so intimately related during the most important period of their lives, and their biographies so closely intermingle, that it is almost impossible to separate them. They are therefore treated conjointly in the present volume, under the title of 4 Boulton and Watt,' the name of the old Soho firm which so long enjoyed a world- wide reputation. But though the name of Boulton takes priority in the title, that of Watt will be found in many respects the most prominent in the narrative. The MS. papers which have been consulted for the purposes of the present volume are of an unusually complete and varied character. They consist of several thousand documents selected from the tons of busi- ness books and correspondence which had accumulated at Soho. The most important were selected and arranged by the late M. Eobinson Boulton, Esq., who entertained the highest regard for his father's memory ; and, from the character of the collection, the author inclines to the opinion that it must have been made with a view to the preparation and publication of a Life of Matthew Boulton, which has not, however, until now been undertaken. Thus, among sundry papers endorsed " M. Boulton Biographical Memoirs," is found a MS. memoir in the handwriting of James Watt, entitled " Me- morandum concerning Mr. Boulton, commencing with my first acquaintance with him," and another of a PREFACE. vii similar character, by Mr. James Keir, both written shortly after Mr. Boulton's death. Another collection, en- dorsed " Familiarum Epistolse et Selects, 1755 to 1808," contains letters received from various distinguished personages iii the course of Mr. Boulton's long and interesting career. The number of original docu- ments is indeed so large, that, but for a rigid exclu- sion of non-essential matter, these Lives must have expanded into several volumes, instead of being com- pressed into one. But the author believes labour to be well bestowed in practising the art of condensation, and that the interest of biography gains much by judi- cious rejection. What Watt said to Murdock as to the production of a machine, holds equally true as to the production of a book, " It is a great thing," said Watt, " to know what to do without." Besides the memoirs of Boulton and Watt, which occupy the principal places in the following volume, it will also be found to contain memoirs of the other inventors who have at various times laboured at the invention and application of the steam-engine, of the Marquis of Worcester, Dionysius Papin, Thomas Savery, and Thomas Newcomen. The author has also been enabled to gather from the Boulton papers a memoir of William Murdock, which probably contains all that is likely to be collected respecting that excel- lent and most ingenious mechanic. In addition to the essential assistance received from M. P. W. Boulton, Esq., in preparing the present book, without which it would not have been undertaken, the author desires to record his acknowledgments to J. W. Gibson Watt, Esq., for information relative to viii PREFACE. James Watt ; to Charles Savery, Esq., Clifton, J. T. Saveiy, Esq., Modbury, Lieutenant-Colonel Yolland, R.E., and Quartermaster Connolly, R.E., for various facts as to the family history and professional career of Thomas Savery, inventor of the " Fire Engine ; " and to Thomas Pemberton, Esq., Heathfield ; W. C. Aitkin, Esq., Coventry ; George Williamson, Esq., Greenock ; the late J. Murdock, Esq., Handsworth ; and the late Mr. William Buckle, of the Eoyal Mint, formerly of Soho, for various information as to the lives and labours of Boulton and Watt. In his treatment of the subject, it will be observed that the author has endeavoured, as much as possible, to avoid introducing technical details relating to the steam-engine. Those who desire further information on such points, are referred to the works of Farey, Tredgold, Bourne, Scott Eussell, Muirhead (' Mecha- nical Inventions of James Watt 5 ), and other technical treatises on the subject, where they will find detailed particulars of the various inventions which are only incidentally referred to in the following pages. London, October, 1805. CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. Anecdote of Matthew Boulton and George III. Boger Bacon on steam power Early inventors, their steam machines and apparatus Hero of Alexandria, Branca, De Cans The Marquis of Worcester His water- works _ His imprisonment His difficulties The water-commanding engine His " Century of Inventions " Obscurity of descriptions of his steam-engine Persevering struggles His later years and death Page 1-26 CHAPTER II. Zeal of the Marchioness of "Worcester Sir Samuel Morland His pumps and fire-engines His privations and death Dr. Dionysius Papin His digester Experiments on the power of steam His steam-engine Proposed steamboat Early schemes of paddle-boats Blasco Garay Papin's model engine and boat Destroyed by boatmen Papin's death 27-38 CHAPTEE III. Thomas Savery The Savery family Savery's mechanical experiments and contrivances His paddle-boat Treatise on ' Navigation Improved ' Cornish mines and the early pumping machinery Savery's " Fire- engine " Exhibition of his model Explanations in the * Miner's Friend ' The engine tried in Cornwall Its failure at Broadwaters, Staffordshire Savery's later years His death and testament 39-58 CHAPTEE IV. Slow progress in invention of the steam-engine Thomas Newcomen of Dartmouth His study of steam-power Correspondence with Dr. Hooke of the Eoyal Society Newcomen's experiments Assisted by John Galley Newcomen's atmospheric engine Newcomen and Galley erect their first engine Humphrey Potter the turn-cock boy's contri- vance Engines erected at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Leeds, and Cornwall Wheal Fortune engine Mr. William Lemon Joseph Hornblower Jonathan Hulls and steam propulsion of ships His steamboat Ex- tended use of the Newcomen engines in Cornwall and northern mining counties Payne, Brindley, and Smeaton, improvers of the steam-engine 59-76 CONTENTS. CHAPTEK V. James Watt, his birthplace and lineage His grandfather the mathematician Cartsdyke and Greenock in the last century James Watt's father His multifarious occupations His mother Watt's early years His fragile constitution Sent to school His first visit to Glasgow His indulgence in story-telling His boyish ingenuity His home education the Stuart rebellion Watt's love of scientific pursuits Sent to Glasgow to learn the trade of mathematical-instrument maker Page 77-95 CHAPTEK VI. Glasgow in 1754 The Glasgow tobacco lords The early clubs, and social habits of the merchants Watt's master Leaves Glasgow, and pro- ceeds to London on horseback Is placed with a mathematical-instru- ment maker His progress in learning the trade Frugal living in London Danger from press-gangs His infirm health Returns to Scotland Refused permission to begin business in Glasgow Gains asylum in the College His workshop there Makes musical instru- ments His various reading and studies Intercourse with the pro- fessors Intimate relations of Watt with Robison Robison's estimate of Watt 96-110 CHAPTEK VII. Robison and Watt's conferences on the power of steam Dr. Black and latent heat Watt's experiments on steam His apparatus The college model of the Newcomen engine arrives from London Watt's experi- ments upon it His difficulties and perseverance His instrument- making business improves Takes a partner and opens a shop in the Salt Market His marriage Continued experiments on steam His Sunday walk on Glasgow Green, and his first idea of the condensing engine His experiments with the model, and successive difficulties Anecdote of Watt and Robison and the new apparatus The model engine Removes to a cellar and erects a working engine Mechanical and financial difficulties 118-137 CHAPTER VIII. Watt's introduction to Dr. Roebuck Begins business as surveyor Surveys canals Partnership with Roebuck in the engine Difficulties in con- structing the engine Watt's visit to Kinneil A patent determined on Watt's despondency Continues his improvements Learns German Correspondence with Dr. Small Specification of patent lodged Watt erects a trial engine The washhouse behind Kinneil The engine completed Its defects Roebuck's embarrassments Watt accepts engagement to superintend canal works Employed in various surveys Designs Hamilton Bridge Supplies plans for dock and pier at Port Glasgow and harbour at Ayr Illness and death of Mrs. Watt Dr. Roebuck's ruin Turning point in Watt's fortunes .. .. 138-158 CONTENTS. CHAPTEE IX. Birmingham in early times Its industry Eoads William Hutton The Boulton family Matthew Boulton begins business His trade correspondence His marriage His love of business Snow-hill and Soho Partnership with Fothergill Aims at excellence in his produc- tions Emulates Wedgwood Surpasses French art-manufacturers His royal and noble patrons Employs the best artists Visits of foreigners at Soho Extension of business Promotes canals His vast business Commercial panic Boulton's scientific pursuits Page 161-181 CHAPTER X. Water- and horse-power at Soho Boulton's correspondence with Benjamin Franklin concerning fire-engine Boulton's model Correspondence with Dr. Darwin and Dr. Roebuck Watt visits Soho First meeting of Boulton and Watt Correspondence of Boulton and Watt, and of Dr. Small and Watt Dr. Pioebuck visits Boulton Watt's anxiety for Boulton to join him Watt's discouragements His continued experi- ments and their failure Watt engineer for the Monkland Canal Com- mercial panic Watt loses employment as canal engineer Roebuck's failure Terms of proposed partnership between Watt, Small, and Boulton Roebuck's share in Watt's engine transferred to Boulton Watt's arrival at Birmingham 182-198 CHAPTER XL Characteristics of Matthew Boulton Contrast between him and Watt Boulton's friends Watt's engine at Soho Boulton's views of engine business The Kinneil engine re-erected at Soho Works successfully Inquiries for pumping-engines from the mining districts Proposed exten- sion of patent by an Act Watt in London Death of Dr. Small Watt invited to Russia Application to Parliament for extension of engine patent Application opposed Watt's arguments Act obtained Watt returns to Birmingham The manufacture of engines begun The Wilkinsons First iron vessel 199-213 CHAPTER XII. Watt's house, Harper's Hill First order for engines Boulton's activity - The London engineers prophesy the failure of Watt's engine Watt revisits Glasgow His second marriage Terms of partnership between Boulton and Watt Orders from Scotland for engines Boulton pressed with work and anxiety Watt returns to Soho with his wife Order for engine for Ting-tang and Chacewater mines, Cornwall Watt and the Shadwell Waterworks Committee Stratford-le-Bow engine Diffi- culties with workmen at Soho, and with unskilled enginemen Expansive working . 214-229 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XIII. Inefficiency of the Newcomen pumping-engines More orders from Cornwall Watt in Cornwall United Mines district Mines drowned Watt and Jonathan Hornblower Mrs. Watt's account of Cornwall Chace- water engine finished Its successful working Watt's embarrassments and financial difficulties Boulton's courage and perseverance, and Fother- gili's despondency Fire at Soho Engine royalty on savings of fuel Altercations with adventurers Watt's frequent calls for Boulton's help Boulton's harassments Proceeds to Cornwall Watt's return to Bir- mingham His despondency Boulton sustains the firm Orders for engines from abroad William Murdock, his excellencies of character and ability First interview with Boulton and engagement Sent to Corn- wall His mode of dealing with the captains Watt's altercations with the Cornishmen His reliance on Boulton Altercation with Trevithick Page 230-260 CHAPTEE XIV. Lieutenant Henderson in Cornwall Boulton's financial embarrassments increase Boulton and Fothergill The " Soho pictures " Watt's letter-copying machine Boulton pushes the machine Demand for copying-presses More financial difficulties Watt's sufferings and me- lancholy More Cornish engines wanted Engine-dues Boulton cheers Watt Mining adventurers' meetings Boulton and Watt take shares The mines Boulton organises the mining business Boulton's house at Cosgarne, Cornwall Mrs. Watt describes her husband's miseries and weakness The engine patent threatened by the Cornish men Watt on patent right The Birmingham Copper Company Boulton improves . engine-boilers by introducing tubes His MSS. and drawings concerning mechanical and scientific experiments His indefatigable industry 261-284 CHAPTEE XV. Watt again visits Cornwall Rotary motion The crank-engine at Soho Theft of the invention Matthew Washborough Smeaton and steam- power Rotary-motion engine Boulton and Watt's cares Evasions of the engine patent The Hornblowers' engine Watt's new inventions Boulton's confidence in the engine Air-engine Watt's fears for the patent The rotary engine invented New improvements intro- duced The equalising beam Watt's ill health and humour Various expedients for producing circular motion Murdock's sun-and-planet motion Patent taken for the reciprocating expansive engine Troubles with workmen Murdock's efficiency and popularity Watt's despondency The firm's London agent's house burnt Gloomy prospects of the mining trade 285-316 CONTENTS. Mii CHAPTEE XVI. Financial position of the firm Rotary engines for mills Bonlton's battles with the Cornish adventurers His life in Cornwall Murdock and the miners The Hornblowers' engine at Radstoke Watt at Bristol Major Tucker Steam mills Rotary motion applied The first rotative engines Pumping-engines for the Fens Boulton's health fails He visits Scotland, Carron ironworks, Lord Dundonalcl His extensive corre- spondence Grumbling in Cornwall Concessions to the miners Press of work at Soho Watt's invention of the parallel motion and the governor Murdock's model locomotive Boulton's praise of Murdock More pumping-engines wanted Boulton's affection for his children Letter to his son His scientific recreations Domestic enjoyment at Cosgarne Page 317-341 CHAPTEE XVII. Boulton's action in commercial politics His interview with Pitt Agitation against Pitt's commercial policy The " Irish resolutions " Watt on free commerce Is opposed to political agitation Combination against patents Fluctuations in the business at Soho Engine orders from various quarters The Cornish copper-miners The Copper Company formed, and Boulton's part in it Riots in Cornwall Boulton's life threatened The esteem in which he was held in Cornwall His intimacy with the Quakers The Albion Mill scheme The double-acting engines for the mill Ill-success of the undertaking Albion Mill burnt down Demand for rotative engines Want of skill and misconduct of workmen Wedgwood's advice to Watt Speculativeness of Boulton His embarrassments Watt's caution in investing Boulton's health fails His depressed spirits Generosity to Watt 342-366 CHAPTEE XVIII. Friends of Boulton and Watt The Lunar Society Provincial scientific societies Distinguished associates of the Lunar Society Dr. Darwin Dr. Priestley, his gifts and accomplishments Josiah Wedgwood Meetings and discussions of the Lunar Society Dr. Priestley's specula- tions and experiments Composition of water, Watt and Cavendish Bleaching by chlorine Sun-pictures Saint-Fond at Birmingham, his descriptions of Watt and Priestley Decline of the Lunar Society 367-385 CHAPTEE XIX. Increasing debasement of the coinage Punishments for counterfeiting Birmingham coiners Boulton refuses orders for base money Executes a contract for coin for the East India Company Applies the steam-engine to coining Improves the coining apparatus Political action in relation CONTENTS. to base coin Strikes model coins for inspection of the Privy Council Opposed by the Mint authorities Presents model coins to the king Executes coinage orders for foreign governments His success Medalling Description of the Soho mint Large consumption of copper in coining Threatened attack on Soho by a mob Boulton executes the new copper coinage for Great Britain Erects the new Government Mint on Tower Hill, and mints for foreign countries Watt's estimate of Boulton's improvements in coining Page 386-399 CHAPTEE XX. Prosperity of Soho Kelaxed strain upon Boulton and Watt Watt's pleasure tours His interview with the king at Windsor Matthew Robinson Boulton, and James Watt, jun., join their fathers in the business their character and attainments Boulton and young Watt Young Boulton's return from Paris The French revolution The Birmingham riots Priestley's house destroyed Unpopularity of the " Philosophers " Young Watt and the Jacobins Watt's flight from Paris Denounced by Burke Mr. Watt's fear for his son's safety The sons join their fathers in partnership Important services of the young partners Evasion of engine-dues, resistance of the Cornish mining companies Legal proceedings and favourable judgments Progress of the engine business William Murdock His valuable services His engine o improvements Return to Soho Invents gas-lighting Winsor's wonderful schemes Murdock's various inventions Substitute for isinglass, his idea of power wasted in streets, atmospheric railway, &c. His death 400-433 CHAPTEE XXL First attempts to construct steamboats All attempts fail until Watt's con- densing engine invented The locomotive of Watt and Murdock William Symington His model locomotive Symington at Edinburgh Steam- engine for canal-boats proposed by Symington Miller's paddle-boats Symington, Miller, and Taylor co-operate to produce a steamboat Sir John Dalrymple's inquiries of Boulton on the same subject Boulton's reply Symington's engine finished and fitted in Miller's boat Successful experiment Symington makes another engine, further experiments Miller applies to Boulton arid Watt to join speculation Watt's reply Symington's engine for the * Charlotte Dundas ' Symington's success frustrated Fulton and Bell inspect the ' Charlotte Dundas ' Fulton's steamboat on the Seine His 'Nautilus' His application to James Watt, jun. Boulton's caution, his letter to Lord Hawkesbury Fulton orders an engine from Soho for the 'Clermont' Its success Henry Bell's steamboat 'Comet' Development of steam-navigation First rendered practicable through Watt's inventions 434-455 CONTENTS. xv CHAPTER XXII. Watt withdraws from Soho Bcmlton continues his interest in business His patent for raising water The burglary at Soho Sir Walter Scott and Boulton Watt in retirement Search for investments Purchases land Makes a foreign tour Death of Mrs. Keir Painful bereave- ments Death of Dr. Black Deaths of members of the Lunar Society Watt's family bereavements Watt's studies on the inhalation of gas Gregory Watt, his brilliant talents His friendship with Humphry Davy His excursions and tours His scientific pursuits His illness and death Davy on Gregory's death Death of Professor Eobison Watt's estimate of EobisOn Boulton's last days, his death and funeral His character Opinions of his contemporaries, Boswell and others, concerning him Attachment of the workmen His Mutual Assurance Society for the workmen His powers of organisation His business qualities His strength, courage, and perseverance in fighting the battle of the steam-engine Watt's estimate of Boulton Boulton's generosity Page 456-487 CHAPTER XXIII. Watt's closing years His pursuits His machine for copying statuary Medallions of his friends His garret workshop Mrs. Watt's rule over her husband Tenacious retention of his faculties Is consulted by the Glasgow Waterworks Company His visits to Cheltenham and other places Growth and improvement of Glasgow Watt's interview with the brothers Hart His conversational powers Sir Walter Scott's pane- gyric on Watt His extensive and varied knowledge His anecdotal powers Fondness for novels Description of him by visitors at Heathfield His last improvements in the sculpture-copying machine His last illness and peaceful death Monumental honours Lord Brougham's inscription His qualities and genius His modesty His close observation Facts and theory Watt and Smeaton compared Universal application of the steam-engine Conclusion 488-514 INDEX 515 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PORTRAIT OF JAMES WATT .. MATTHEW BOULTON .. PAGE Edward, second Marquis of Wor- cester 2 Ancient Greek ^Eolipile 3 Branca's Machine 7 De Caus's Steam Apparatus .. .. 9 Kuins of Raglan Castle 26 Dionysius Papin 31 Ancient Paddle-Boat 36 Thomas Savery 41 Section of Savery's Paddle-Boat . . 43 Savery's Fire-Engine 52 HuelVor 55 Newcomen's House, Dartmouth . . 60 Newcomen's Atmospheric Engine . . 67 Ruins of Wheal Fortune 70 Polgooth 71 Jonathan Hull's Steam-Boat . . . . 73 Dartmouth from the Harbour . . 76 Greenock and the Clyde, 1865 . . 78 Greenock Harbour, 1768 .. .. 79 Crawfordsburn House, Greenock .. 80 James Watt Tavern, Greenock . . 87 Trongate, Glasgow 97 Inner Quadrangle, Glasgow College 107 Isometric View of Glasgow College, 1693 108 The Broomielaw in 1760 .. .. 116 Professor Robison 117 Papin's Digester 120 The Newcomen Model 121 Watt's House, Delftfield Lane .. 126 Watt's first Improved Apparatus . . 130 Dr. Joseph Black 132 Kinneil House 142 Outhouse behind Kinneil . . . . 148 Hamilton Bridge 156 Port Glasgow 158 Birmingham 160 Soho Manufactory 169 Soho House . 177 to face Title-page to face page 15!) PAOS Watt's House, Harper's Hill .. ..214 Map of United Mines District . . 231 Watt's Pumping-Engine for Mines 23(5 Redruth, High Street 238 Cardozos Pumping-Engine . . . . 260 United Mines District and St. Day 261 Cosgarne House 275 Entrance to ditto 284 The " Waggon and Horses,'' Hands- worth 285 The Crank as applied in the Foot- Lathe 287 Interior of the " Waggon and Horses " 288 Old Engine-House, Dalcoath . . . . 306 Sun-and-Planet Motion 309 " Old Bess " Engine 326 The parallel Motion 334 The Governor 335 Polgooth Engine-House .... . . 339 Double Acting Engine, Albion Mill 355 Dr. Priestley 370 Site of Soho Mint 399 Burning of Dr. Priestley's House . . 411 William Murdock 422 Murdock's House, Handsworth . . 433 The " Comet " passing Dumbarton 453 Watt's House, Heathfield . . . . 456 Boulton's Monument in Hands- worth Church 478 The Garret at Heathfield . . . . 494 Miller's Triple Vessel 437 Symington's first Steamboat-En- gine 441 Miller's Experimental Steamboat . . 442 Machinery of the ' Charlotte Dun- das' 447 Water-Pipe in the Bed of the Clyde 497 Watt's Chapel and Monument, Handsworth Church 508 Handsworth Church 514 BEGINNINGS OF THE STEAM-ENGINE: THE EARLY INVENTORS. HDWAHD, SECOND MARQUIS OP WORCESTER [By T. D. Scott after Vandyck.] ANCIENT GREEK BEGINNINGS OF THE STEAM-ENGINE : THE EARLY INVENTORS. CHAPTEK I. D AWNINGS OF STEAM POWER THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. WHEN Matthew Boultoii entered into partnership with James Watt, he gave up the ormolu business in which he had before been principally engaged. He had been accustomed to supply George III. with articles of this manufacture, but ceased to wait upon the King for orders after embarking in his new enterprise. Some time after, he appeared at the Royal Levee and was at once recognised by the King. " Ha ! Boulton," said he, " it is long since we have seen you at Court. Pray, what business are you now engaged in?" "I am engaged, your Majesty, in the production of a commodity which is the desire of kings." " And what is that ? what B 2 4 BOULTON AND GEORGE III. CHAP. I. is that?" asked the King. " POWER, your Majesty," replied Boulton, who proceeded to give a description of the great uses to which the steam-engine was capable of being applied. If the theory of James Mill l be true, that government is founded on the desire which exists among men to secure and enjoy the products of labour, by whatsoever means produced, probably the answer of Boulton to George III. was not far from correct. In the infancy of nations this desire manifested itself in the enforcement of labour by one class upon another, in the various forms of slavery and serfdom. To evade the more onerous and exhausting kinds of bodily toil, men were impelled to exercise their ingenuity in improving old tools and inventing new ones, while, to increase production, they called the powers of nature to their aid. They tamed the horse, and made him their servant ; they caught the winds as they blew, and the waters as they fell, and applied their powers to the driving of mills and machines of various kinds. But there was a power greater by far than that of horses, wind, or water, a power of which poets and philosophers had long dreamt, capable of being applied alike to the turning of mills, the raising of water, the rowing of ships, the driving of wheel-carriages, and the performance of labour in its severest forms. As early as the thirteenth century, Roger Bacon described this great new power in terms which, interpreted by the light of the present day, could only apply to the power of Steam. He anticipated that " chariots may be made so as to be moved with incalculable force, with- out any beast drawing them," and that " engines of navi- gation might be made without oarsmen, so that the greatest river and sea ships, with only one man to steer them, may sail swifter than if they were fully manned." 1 Article " Government," in ' Encyclopaedia Britannica.' CHAP. I. MYSTERIOUS POWER OF STEAM. 5 But Bacon was a seer rather than an expounder, a phi- losophic poet rather than an inventor ; and it was left to men of future times to find out the practical methods of applying the wonderful power which he had imagined and foretold. The enormous power latent in water exposed to heat had long been known. Its discovery must have been almost contemporaneous with that of fire. The expansive force of steam would be obvious on setting the first par- tially-closed pipkin upon the fire. If closed, the lid would be blown off; and even if the vessel were of iron, it would soon burst with appalling force. Was it possible to render so furious and apparently unmanageable an agent, docile and tractable ? Even in modern times, the explosive force of steam could only be compared to that of gunpowder ; and it is a curious fact, that both De Hautefeuille and Papin proposed to employ gunpowder in preference to steam in driving a piston in a cylinder, considering it to be the more manageable power of the two. Although it appears from the writings of the Greek physician, Hero, who flourished at Alexandria more than a century before Christ, that steam was well known to the ancients, it was employed by them merely as a toy, or as a means of exciting the wonder of the credulous. In his treatise on Pneumatics, Hero gives descriptions of various methods of employing steam or heated air for the purpose of producing apparently magical effects ; from which we infer that the agency of heat was em- ployed by the heathen priests in the performance of their rites. By one of the devices which he describes, water was apparently changed into wine ; by another, the . temple doors were opened by fire placed on the sacrificial altar ; while by a third, the sacrificial vessel was so contrived as to flow only when* the money of the votary was cast into it. Another ingenious device con- sisted in the method employed to pour out libations. THE WHIRLING .EOLIPTLE. (/HAP. 1. Upon -the altar-fire being kindled, the air in the interior became expanded and, pressing upon the surface of the liquid which it contained, forced it up a connecting- pipe, and so out of the sacrificial cup. The libation was made, and the people cried, " A miracle ! " But Hero knew the trick, and explained the arrangement by which it was accomplished : it forms the subject of his eleventh theorem. The most interesting of the other devices described by Hero is the whirling ^Eolipile, or ball of ^Eolus, which, though but a toy, possessed the properties of a true steam-engine, and was most probably the first ever invented. As Hero's book professes to be, for the most part, but a collection of the devices handed down by former writers, and as he does not lay claim to its in- vention, it is probable the ^Eolipile may Rave been known long before his time. The machine consisted of a hollow globe of metal, moving on its axis, and com- municating with a caldron of water placed underneath. The globe was provided with one or more tubes pro- jecting from it, closed at the ends, but open on one side. When a fire was lit under the caldron, and the steam was raised, it filled the globe, and, projecting itself against the air through the openings in the tubes, the reactive force thus produced caused the globe to spin round upon its axis " as if it were animated from within by a living spirit." 1 The mechanical means by which these various objects were accomplished, as explained by Hero, show that the ancients were acquainted with the ordinary expedients for communicating motion, such as the wheel and axle, spur-wheels, toothed pinions and sectors, the lever-beam, 1 The principle of the ^Eolipile is the same as that embodied in Avery and Ruthven's engines for the produc- tion of rotary motion. " These en- gines," says Bourne, " are more expen- sive in steam than ordinary engines, and travel at an inconvenient speed ; but in other respects they are quite as effectual, and their construction is extremely simple and inexpensive." CHAP. I. IWANCA'S MACHINE. and other well-known expedients ; while they also knew of the cylinder and piston, the three-way cock, slide- valves and valve-clacks, 1 and many other ingenious mechanical details which have been reinvented in mo- dern times. Hero's book lay hidden in manuscript and buried in libraries, until the revival of learning in Italy in the sixteenth century, when a translation of it appeared at Bologna in 1547. By that time printing had been in- vented ; and the multiplication of copies being thereby rendered easy, the book was soon brought under the notice of inquiring men throughout Europe. The work must, indeed, have excited an extraordinary de- gree of interest ; in proof of vttiich it may be inenti oned that eight different editions, in different languages, were published within a century. The minds of the curious and the scientific were thus di- rected to the subject of steam as a motive power. But for a long time they never got beyond the idea of Hero's ^Eolipile, though they endeavoured to apply the rotary motion produced by it in different ways. Thus, a German writer suggested that it should be used to turn spits, instead of turnspit dogs ; and Branca, j the Italian architect, used the steam jet projected from a brazen head to drive an apparatus BRANCA'S MACHINE 1 See Bennet Woodcraft's ' Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria,' from the original Greek. London, 1851. 8 SOLOMON DE CAUS. CHAP. 1. contrived by him for pounding drugs. The jet forced round the vanes of a wheel, so as to produce a rotary motion, and this, being communicated to other wheels, set in motion a rod and stamper, after the manner shown in the preceding cut. Solomon de Caus was another of the speculative in- quirers whose attention was drawn to the subject of steam by the publication of Hero's book. De Caus was a native of Normandy, and for some time studied the pro- fession of an architect in Italy ; from whence he returned to France early in the seventeenth century. Religious persecution was then raging, and, being a Protestant, he was glad to take refuge from it in England. He entered the service of the Prince of Wales, by whom he was for a time employed in designing grottoes, fountains, and hydraulic ornaments for the Palace Gardens at Rich- mond. While occupied in that capacity he gave lessons in design to the Princess Elizabeth ; and on her marriage to the Elector Palatine he accompanied her to Heidel- berg, to take charge of the Castle gardens there. It was while residing at Heidelberg that De Caus wrote his well-known book on hydraulics, which was published at Frankfort in 1615. l One of De Caus's expedients for raising water con- sisted of an apparatus in which he proposed to employ the expansive power of steam for the purpose. In Hero's book it is shown how a column of water may be thrown up by means of compressed air ; and De Caus merely proposed to employ steam instead of air. His apparatus was very simple. It consisted of a spheri- cal vessel fitted with two pipes, one of them provided with a cock and funnel ; the other, which reached down to near the bottom of the vessel, being open at the top to the external air. When the vessel was filled with 1 Lcs Eaisons des Forces Mou- Vflntes, avec diverses machines tant utiles quo plaisantes, &c., par Solomon do Cans, Inp;e'nieiir ct Architecte du Roy. Frankfort, 1615. CHAP. I. DE CAUS'S STEAM APPARATUS. water and a fire lit underneath, the water was forced up the open tube in a jet, greater or less in proportion to the elasticity of the steam. When both tubes were tightly closed, so that neither steam nor water could escape, the heat, says De Caus, would shortly cause a compression from within so violent that " the ball will burst in pieces, with a noise like a petard." It will be observed that there was little mechanical contrivance, and no practical use in this apparatus ; it merely furnished an illustration of the extraordinary force of pent-up steam, and that was all. Though De Caus made many experiments with his steam-vessel, he never succeeded in making if, indeed, he ever attempted to make a working steam-engine of any kind. It is not impro- bable that he was dismayed, as others were, by the apparent violence of the imprisoned monster ; and it needed a more ingenious head than his to contrive a method of rendering him docile, and making him go quietly in harness. 1 DE CADS'3 STEAM APPARATUS 1 De Caus eventually returned to France, and was appointed engineer to the King. During the later years of his life he was employed in carrying out plans for the better supply of Paris with water. The story so often told of De Cans having been shut up in the Bicetre turns out to be a fic- tion. Though a Huguenot, he was not persecuted by Richelieu, but was, on the contrary, employed by him ; and in 1624 he dedicated to that prelate his treatise entitled ' Horologes Solitaires.' Mr. Charles Read, editor of several interesting memoirs of early French Protestants, has recently brought to light and published in the ' Gazette des Tribunaux ' the proofs of the patronage of De Caus by Richelieu, and reproduced the original documents, which he discovered slum- bering in the dust of the State Records at Paris. In 1621 De Caus is found proposing to Louis XIII. to adopt measures for cleansing Paris and the faubourgs of dirt and uncleanness, by a system of reservoirs established at elevated points, and by fountains at various places which he indicated. The king and his council sent the propositions to the chief magistrate of Paris, and Mr. Read transcribes the deliberation which took place on the subject at the City Council, as handed down in the records deposited in the Imperial Archives. De Caus died at Paris, and was buried in the church of La Trinite' in February, 1626. 10 THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. CHAP. 1. It is probable that the first contriver of a working steam-engine was Edward, second Marquis of Worcester, one of the first and most illustrious of a long line of unfortunate inventors. The career of that nobleman- born though he was to high rank and great estate was chequered and sad in no ordinary degree. Edward Somerset was the eldest son of Henry Lord Herbert, afterwards Earl of Worcester, and consequently heir to that title. He was born in London in 1601. His early years were principally spent at Eaglan Castle, his father's country seat, where his education was carefully attended to. In the course of his pupilage he made occasional visits to the continent, accompanied by his tutor, for the purpose of acquiring that degree of polish and culture considered necessary for a person of his social position. On the accession of his father to the Earldom of Worcester, in 1627, Edward became Lord Herbert by courtesy ; and in the following year he married, and went to reside at Eaglan Castle. From an early period of his life Lord Herbert took especial pleasure in mechanical studies, and in the course of his foreign tours he visited and examined the famous works of construction abroad ; for as yet there were none such in England. On settling down at Raglan, he proceeded to set up a laboratory, or work- shop, wherein to indulge his mechanical tastes, and perhaps to while away the tedium of a country life. To assist him in his labours, he engaged a clever foreign mechanic, named Caspar Kaltoff, who remained in his service for many years, and materially helped him in his various contrivances. Among the works executed by Lord Herbert and his assistant at Raglan, was the hydraulic apparatus by means of which the castle was supplied with water. From an incidental reference to the "water-works" by a contemporary writer, we learn that they consisted of a series of engines and wheels, by means of which water was raised through pipes to a CHAP. I. HIS WATER- WORKS. li cistern placed on the summit of the central tower. 1 It is probable that the planning and construction of these works induced Lord Herbert to prosecute the study of hydraulics, and to enter upon that series of experiments as to the power of steam which eventually led to the contrivance of his " Water-commanding Engine." In pursuits and studies such as these, Lord Herbert spent about seven years at Raglan Castle. But his wife dying in 1635, the place became connected in his mind with too painful associations, and he shortly after left it to reside in London. On his arrival there, he pro- ceeded to put to the practical test a plan of perpetual motion which he had long studied, and now thought he had brought to perfection. He accordingly had his self-moving wheel 2 set up in the Tower; but though it moved, its motion did not prove perpetual, and it shortly dropped out of sight, to be no more heard of. 1 Dr. Bayly, in his ' Apothegms ' ! (1682), p. 87, describes the fright \ given to some Puritan visitors on the j occasion of their searching Raglan I Castle for arms, the Marquis of Wor- > cester being a known Papist. " Hav- ing carried them up and down the castle, his lordship at length brought them over a high bridge that arched over the moat between the castle and the great tower, wherein the Lord Herbert had lately contrived certain water-works, which, when the several engines and wheels were set agoing, much quantity of water through the hollow conveyances of the aqueducts was to be let down from the top of an high tower." When all was ready for the surprise, the water was let in, and it made such a hideous and fearful noise by reason of the hollowness of the tower, and the neighbouring echoes of the castle, that the men stood amazed and terror-struck. At this point up came a man staring and running, who exclaimed, " Look to yourselves, my masters, for the lions are got loose." Whereupon the Puri- tans fled down the narrow staircase in such haste that they lost footing and fell, tumbling one over the other, and never halted until they had got the castle out of sight. Mr. Dircks, in his able and exhaustive ' Life, Times, and Scientific Labours of the Marquis of Worcester,' London, 1865, says that this hydraulic apparatus " pro- bably depended for its operation on the influence of heat from burning fuel acting on a suitably constructed boiler, and so arranged as to be able to apply the expansive force of steam to the driving of water through ver- tical pipes to a considerable eleva- tion." But it does not seem to us that the facts stated are sufficient to warrant this assumption. 2 Mr. Dircks says " it was a ma- chine consisting of a wheel 14 feet in diameter, carrying forty weights of forty pounds each, and is supposed to have rotated on an axle supported on two pillars or upright frames," as indicated in the 'Century of Inven- tions,' Art. 56. 12 THE GREAT REBELLION. CHAP. T. After the lapse of four years, Lord Herbert again married, taking to wife the Lady Margaret, second daughter of the Earl of Thomond. In the year after his second marriage, the celebrated Long Parliament began its sittings. Questions of great public import were agitating the minds of thinking men, and the nation was gradually becoming divided into two hostile parties, soon to be arrayed against each other in deadly strife. A Eoyalist and a Roman Catholic like his father, Lord Herbert at once ranged himself on the side of the King. On the outbreak of the Civil War, we find both father and son actively employed in mustering forces, and pre- paring to hold the western counties against the Parlia- ment. Eaglan Castle was strongly garrisoned, and for- tifications were thrown up around it, so as to render it secure against assault. The Earl, now Marquis of Wor- cester, was appointed Generalissimo of the Western Forces, while his son, Lord Herbert, was made General of South Wales. From this office he was shortly after called by the King, who, creating him Earl of Gla- morgan, despatched him on a mission to Ireland, with the object of stirring up the loyalists of that kingdom, and inducing them to come to his help. This delicate office he is said to have performed with more zeal than discretion. Indeed, the studious habits of his early life must in a measure have unfitted him for the conduct of so important an affair ; and the bungle he made of it was such that the King felt himself under the necessity of repudiating the acts which the Earl had done in his name. It is unnecessary that we should follow the fortunes of the house of Raglan in the course of the civil war. Suffice it to say that the King's cause was utterly lost ; that Raglan Castle was besieged, taken, and dismantled ; that the Marquis of Worcester, having advanced to the King at different times as much as 122,500/., had com- pletely impoverished himself; and that when the Earl ( 'HAP. I. IMPRISONED IN THE TOWER. 13 succeeded to his father's title, and became second Mar- quis of Worcester, in 1646, he inherited an exhausted exchequer, a confiscated estate, and a ruined home. The services he had rendered to the King were remem- bered against him ; and to escape the vengeance of his political enemies he took refuge in France. There he lived in poverty and in exile for a period of about five years. At length, drawn to England by the powerful attractions of wife and family, and probably also com- missioned to perform a service for the exiled Charles II., the Marquis secretly visited London in 1655, where he was shortly after detected, apprehended, and imprisoned in the Tower. He sought and found solace, during his confinement, in study and contemplation, reverting to his early experiments in mechanics ; and he occupied the long and weary hours in committing to paper descriptions of his many ingenious devices, which he afterwards published in his ' Century of Inventions/ The Marquis's old and skilled mechanic, Caspar Kaltoff, continued faithful to him in his adversity, and was per- mitted to hold free communication with him ; from which we infer that his imprisonment was not of a very rigid character. After lying in the Tower for about two years, the Marquis was liberated on bail, in October, 1654, when he proceeded to take steps to erect his long-con- templated Water-commanding Engine. Even while a prisoner, we find him negotiating with the then owner of Yauxhall for its purchase, with a view to the esta- blishment there of a school of skilled industry ; thus anticipating by nearly two centuries the School of Mines and Manufactures at South Kensington. In the month preceding his enlargement we find Hartlib writing to the Hon. Eobert Boyle, " The Earl of Worcester is buying Fauxliall from Mr. Treiichard, to bestow the use of that house upon Caspar Calchoff and his son as long* as they shall live, for he intends to make it a College of 14 STRAITENED IN MEANS. CHAP. 1 Artizaris." 1 His main difficulty, however, consisted in raising the necessary means for carrying his excellent project into effect. He was, indeed, so reduced in his circumstances as to be under the necessity of petitioning his political enemies for the bare means of living ; and we find Cromwell, in the course of the year following his liberation from prison, issuing a warrant for the pay- ment to him of three pounds a week " for his better main- tenance." The Marquis also tried the experiment of levying contributions from his friends ; but they were, for the most part, as poor as himself. He next tried the wealthy men of the Parliamentary party, and succeeded in obtaining several advances of money from Colonel Copley, who took an active interest in the prosecu- tion of various industrial undertakings. 2 The following letter from the Marquis to Copley shows the straits to which he was reduced : "DEAR FRIEND, I kiiowe not with what face to desire a curtesie from you, since 1 have not yet payed you the five powndes, and the iriayne businesse soe long protracted, whereby my reality and kindiiesse should with thankfullnesse appeare ; for though the least I intende you is to make up the somme already promised to a thousand powndes yearly, or a share ammounting to four more, which, to nominate before the perfection of the woorke, were but an indimduum vagum, and, therefore, I deferre it, and upon noe other score. Yet in this interim, my disappointments are soe great, as that I am forced to begge, if you could possible, eyther to helpe me with tenne powndes to this bearer, or to make use of the coache, and to goe to Mr. Clerke, and if he could this day help me to fifty powndes, then to paye your selfe the five powndes 1 owe you out of them. The Alderman has taken three days' time to consider of it. Pardon the great trouble I give you, which I doubt not but in time to deserve, by really appearing " Your most thankfull friend, " WORCESTER. " 2Sth March, 1656. " To my honoured friend, Collonel CHRISTOPHER COPPLEY, these." The original of this letter is endorsed " My Lord of 1 ' Weld's .Royal Society,' i. 53. 2 ' Industrial Biography,' p. 57. ("HAP. T. HOPES REVIVED. 15 Worcester's letter about my share in his engine," from which it would appear that the Marquis induced his friends to advance him money on the promise of a cer- tain proportion of shares in the undertaking. He also pressed his invention upon the notice of Government, representing that he was in a position to do his High- ness the Protector " more service than any one subject of his three nations." But neither the Protector nor his Ministers took any further notice of the Marquis or his project. It is probable that they regarded him as a bore, and his water-commanding engine as the mere dream of a projector. The Marquis himself continued to be as confident as ever of the ultimate success of his scheme. He believed that it would yet realise him an immense fortune. Writing of the engine to the Earl of Lotherdale, he described it as " the greatest invention for profit that I ever yet heard of vouchsafed to a man, especially so unworthy and ignorant as I am." But the Marquis was not so humble as he affected to be, believing in his heart that he had invented, without exception, the most wonderful machine of the age. Still it remained a mere project. Without the means of erecting an engine, it promised to remain such; and all his efforts to raise the necessary funds had thus far proved unavailing. The Restoration of Charles II., in 1660, revived his hopes. Now that the King enjoyed his own again, the Marquis believed that he, too, would come into posses- sion of the means for carrying out his project, For thirteen years he had lived in exile, in prison, and in poverty : but brighter days had dawned at last ; and he indulged in the hope that compensation would at length be made to him for his sufferings in the cause of the Stuarts, and that he would now bask in the sunshine of Roval favour. He made all haste to represent his case to the king, and to claim restitution for his heavy losses in the late war. But there were thousands of like sup- HIS INVENTIONS PROTECTED. CHAP. I. pliants all over the kingdom, and redress came slowly. The Marquis was, however, shortly put in possession of such parts of his estates as had not been sold by the Pro- tector ; but he found them for the most part cleared of their timber, and comparatively valueless. The castle at Raglan was in ruins. He himself was heavily burdened with debt, and his creditors were becoming increasingly importunate for money. It was thus long before he could shake himself clear of his embarrass- ments, and devote himself to the great object of his life, the prosecution of his water-commanding engine. One of his first cares, on the partial recovery of his property, was to obtain a legal protection for his in- ventions ; and in the year following the Restoration we find him taking out a patent for four of his schemes, a watch or clock, guns or pistols, an engine to give security to a coach, and a boat to sail against wind and tide. In the session of Parliament, 1662-3, he obtained an Act securing to himself the profits of the water- commanding engine. About the same time he gave to the world his famous ' Century,' 1 which contains his own account of his various inventions. In the second dedication of the book to the members of both Houses of Parliament he states that he had already expended the large sum of 10,000/. on experiments; but he professed that he esteemed himself sufficiently rewarded by the passing of " the Act of the Water-commanding Engine," and, his debts once paid, he intended to devote the rest of his life to the service of his King and country. The ' Century ' is a mere summary of things alleged to have been tried and perfected, conveyed in vague and mysterious language, and calculated rather to excite 1 'A Century of the Names and Scantlings of such Inventions as at present 1 can call to mind to have tried and perfected, which (my former Notes being lost) I have, at the in- stance of a powerful Friend, en- deavoured now, in the year 1055, to set these down in such a way as may sufficiently instruct me to put any of them in practice.' London, 1G63. CHAP. I. SUGGESTIONS IN THE ' SCANTLINGS.' 17 wonder than to furnish information. The descriptions were unaccompanied by plans or drawings, so that we can only surmise the means by which he proposed to carry his schemes into effect. It is possible that he purposely left the descriptions of his inventions vague, in order that he might not be anticipated in their application ; for it is certain that at the time the book was written the Marquis had not taken out his first patent, nor obtained the Act securing to him the profits of his engine. There can, however, be no doubt that, vague and mysterious though the ' Scantlings' be, they indicate a knowledge of mechanical principles considerably in advance of the age, as well as a high degree of me- chanical ingenuity. The hundred Articles into which the book is divided contain suggestions, in shorthand descriptions, of things so various as ship -destroy ing machines, telegraphs, combination and escutcheon locks, 1 improvements in fire-arms, universal alphabets, seals and watches, various kinds of cipher, a boat rowing against wind and tide, automata, and mechanical appliances of different kinds, including the u stupendious and- semi- omnipotent" engine. Some of them read like descrip- tions of conjuring tricks, such as the artificial bird, the hour water-ball, the flying man, the brazen head, the dicing-box, and various automata. Others are full 1 The writer of the elaborate article " Lock," in the supplement to the ' Penny Cyclopedia ' (ii. 217), in de- scribing the combination lock, says : " The Marquis of Worcester, in whose 'Century of Inventions' several dif- ferent kinds of lock, which lay claim to the most marvellous properties, are enumerated, would appear, from his 72nd article, to have devised an im- provement on this apparatus ; as he refers to * an escutcheon to be placed before any of these locks,' one of the properties of which he describes as being that ' the owner, though a woman, may, with her delicate hand, vary the ways of coming to open the lock ten millions of times beyond the knowledge of the smith that made it, or of me who invented it.' The details of this invention are not given ; but in the third volume of the ' Transactions of the Society of Arts,' pp. 160-5, is an escutcheon of similar character, invented by Mr. Marshall, and re- warded by the Society in 1784. The details of this ingenious contrivance are fully given in the volume referred to." C is ENGINE AT VAUXHALL. CHAP. .1. of prophetic insight, and contain anticipations of me- chanical marvels, which, however wonderful they may at that time have appeared, have since been fully realised. The style in which the treatise was written, however, presented so remarkable a contrast to the contemporary writings of Newton, Boyle, Pascal, Guericke, and others, that it is not improbable it had the effect of prejudicing the minds of scientific men against the writer, and led them to regard his schemes as those of a wild projector, and hence to treat his propositions with neglect, if not with contumely. So soon as the Marquis had become possessed of the requisite funds, he proceeded to erect an engine at Yaux- hall to illustrate the uses of his principal invention. He was assisted, as before, by his old workman, Caspar Kaltoff. It is probable that the engine was erected by the beginning of 1663 ; for in the course of that year M. Sorbiere paid his visit to England, and found the Marquis's " hydraulic machine " at work. He describes it as capable of raising, by the strength of one man only, within a minute of time, four large buckets of water to a height of forty feet, through a pipe eight inches in diameter. He proceeds to compare it with another machine at Somerset House, worked by one or two horses, which he considers the more effective ma- chine of the two. 1 This account of the Marquis's in- 1 His words are these : " One of the most curious things that I wished to see was an hydraulic machine which the Marquis of Worcester has invented, and of which he is making trial. I went with all speed to Fox-hall, on the other side of the Thames, a little balow Lambeth, which is the Palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury, in sight of London. This machine will raise to the height of forty feet, by the strength of one man only, and in a minute of time, four large buckets of water through a pipe of eight inches. But what will be the most powerful help to the wants of the public is the work which is performed by another in- geniously-constructed machine, which can be seen raised on a wooden tower on the top of Somerset House, which supplies that part of the town with water, but with some difficulty, and a smaller quantity than could be desired. It is somewhat like our Samaritane water- work on the Pont Neuf; and on the raising-pump they have added an impulsion which increases the force ; but for what we obtain by the power of the Seine, they employ one or two horses, which incessantly turn CHAP. I. RIDICULE OF HIS CONTRIVANCE. 19 vention is confirmed by another brief description of it, which occurs in the narrative of the travels of Cosmo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in England, some years later. Count Magalotti, the narrator, says, " It raises water more than forty geometrical feet, by the power of one man only ; and in a very short space of time will draw up four vessels of water through a tube or channel not more than a span in width, on which account it is considered to be of greater service to the public than the other machine at Somerset House." It will thus be observed that the Duke's secretary entertained a different opinion from that expressed by M. Sorbiere as to the comparative merits of the two engines spoken of. It is worthy of remark that the incidental accounts of these two foreigners contain almost the only contem- porary information we possess as to the character of the Marquis's invention. English writers of the time are almost entirely silent about it; and when Dr. Hooke, the learned Secretary of the Royal Society, refers to the contrivance, it is in a tone of ridicule rather than of praise. Writing to Mr. Boyle, in 1667, he characterises the definition or description of the water-commanding engine as " so purely romantic that it would serve one rarely to fill up half a dozen pages in the ' History of Fortunatus his Wishing Cap.' ... "I was," he adds, " since my return to London to see this engine, when I found Caltrop [Kaltoff ], his chief engineer, to laugh at it ; and as far as I was able to see it, it seemed one of the perpetual-motion fallacies; of which kind Caltrop himself, and two or three others that I know, are labour- ing at this time in vain to make, but after several ways ; and nothing but costly experience will make them desist." 1 It is difficult to gather from the statements of Sor- the machine, as the river changes its course twice a day, and the spring or wheels which are used for the ebbing tide would not do for the flow." Sorbiere, ' Relation d'un Voyage en Angleterre.' 1 The Works of the Hon. Robert Boyle, v. 532. c 2 20 THE MARQUIS'S DEFINITION. CHAP. I biere and Cosmo de Medici what was the precise nature of the Marquis's hydraulic apparatus. There is no men- tion whatever of steam, either in their accounts or in that of Dr. Hooke ; but the latter does not seem to have been allowed to examine the details of the machine. From the mention by Sorbiere of the " four large buckets of water," and by Cosmo's secretary, of " four vessels of water," it might possibly have been only an improved hydraulic apparatus, worked by a man instead of a horse. In order, therefore, to obtain a clue to the real nature of the machine we find it necessary to resort to the Marquis's ' Scantlings' for his own account of its action, and we find it in article No. 68, which runs as follows : " 68. An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire, not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for that must be as the Philosopher calleth it, Intra sphceram activitatis, which is but at ,suoh a distance. But this way hath no Bounder, if the Vessels be strong enough ; for I have taken a piece of a whole Cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it three-quarters full of water, stopping and scruing up the broken end ; as also the Touch-hole ; and making a constant fire under it, within twenty-four hours it burst and made a great crack : So that having a way to make my Vessels, so that they are strengthened by the force within them, and the one to fill after the other, I have seen the water run like a constant Fountaine- stream forty foot high ; one Vessel of water rarified by fire driveth up forty of cold water. And a man that tends the work is but to turn two Cocks, that one Vessel of water being consumed, another begins to force and refill with cold water, and so successively, the fire being tended and kept constant, which the self-same Person may likewise abundantly perform in the interim between the necessity of turning the said Cocks." From this account we gather that the Marquis had contrived a plan for raising water by the expansive force of steam, after the manner of De Caus, but with im- portant modifications and improvements. It had obvi- ously occurred to him, that by generating the steam in a separate vessel, and conveying it by means of a 'suit- able pipe to a second closed vessel, he could thereby CHAP. I. HIS STEAM-ENGINE. 21 make it expel the water which the latter contained by pressing upon its surface, as in De Caus's apparatus. The admission of the steam could easily be regulated by the turning of two cocks ; one to admit the steam from the boiler, and the other to allow the exit of the water. On the expulsion of the water, and the production of a vacuum by the condensation of the contained steam, the empty vessel would at once be refilled by the action of the atmospheric pressure on the surface of the water to be raised. It is probable that this engine was in the absence of a feed-pump, of which there is no mention provided with two boilers as well as with the two cisterns in which the "forcing and refilling" went on, so as to maintain the " constant fountain-stream" which the Marquis describes. But the precise arrange- ment of parts by which he accomplished this object must ever remain a matter of mere conjecture. We have other distinct indications of a steam-engine in the Marquis's 98th, 99th, and 100th Articles, which ought to be read in connection with the 68th Article : they run as follows : " 98. An Engine so contrived, that working the Primum mobile forward or backward, upward or downward, circularly or corner- wise, to and fro, streight, upright or downright, yet the pretended Operation continueth, and advanceth none of the motions above- mentioned, hindering, much less stopping the other ; but unani- mously, and with harmony agreeing they all augment and contribute strength unto the intended work and operation : And therefore I call this A Semi-omnipotent Engine, and do intend that a Model thereof be buried with me." "99. How to make one pound weight to raise an hundred as high as one pound falleth, and yet the hundred pound descending doth what nothing less than one hundred pound can effect." " 100. Upon so potent a help as these two last-mentioned Inven- tions a Waterwork is by many years experience and labour so advantageously by me contrived, that a Child's force bringeth up an hundred foot high an incredible quantity of water, even two foot Diameter, so naturally, that the work will not be heard even into the next Koom; and with so great ease and Geometrical Symmetry, that though it work day and night from one end of the 22 NO MODEL PRESERVED. CHAP. I. year to the other, it will not require forty shillings reparation to the whole Engine, nor hinder ones day-work. And I may boldly call it The most stupendous Work in the whole world : not onely with little charge to drein all sorts of Mines, and furnish Cities with water, though never so high seated, as well to keep them sweet, running through several streets, and so performing the work of Scavengers, as well as furnishing the Inhabitants with sufficient water for their private occasions ; but likewise supplying Eivers with sufficient to maintaine and make them portable from Towne to Towne, and for the bettering of Lands all the way it runs ; with many more advantageous, and yet greater effects of Profit, Admira- tion, and Consequence. So that deservedly I deem this Invention to crown my Labours, to reward my Expences, and make my Thoughts acquiesce in way of further Inventions : This making up the whole Century, and preventing any further trouble to the Reader for the present, meaning to leave to Posterity a Book, wherein under each of these Heads the means to put in execution and visible trial all and every of these Inventions, with the shape and form of all things belonging to them, shall be Printed by Brass- plates." The promised book was never written, and we are accordingly left in uncertainty as to the precise character of the Marquis's inventions. That he had a full convic- tion of the great powers of steam, as well as of its manage- ability and extensive practical uses, is sufficiently clear ; but that he ever erected any engines after the plans thus summarily described is matter of considerable doubt. It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the number and variety of his suggested inventions, not a single model or machine constructed by the Marquis or his skilled workmen has been preserved. Mr. Dircks, who has collected and published all that is likely to be brought to light relative to the life and works of the Marquis, and has laboured at his task with a rare love and enthu- siasm for his subject, naturally expresses surprise that " none of the many cabinets of the curious seem to have possessed any model or work of his production ; not even the indefatigable Tradescant, although his museum was at Lambeth." ] But it is probable, as we have already 1 Dircks's ' Life and Times,' &c., 356. CHAP. I. AMBIGUITY OF THE ARTICLES. 23 observed, that the Marquis's ' Scantlings/ notwithstand- ing his statement that he had " tried and perfected" the in- ventions of which he speaks, were rather the foreshadow- ings of things to come than the descriptions of things that had actually been executed. Thus, no one pretends that the Marquis ever constructed a steamboat, and yet his description of a vessel " to work itself against wind and tide, yea, both, without the help of man or beast," can apply to nothing else. 1 " This engine," said he, " is applicable to any vessel or boat whatsoever, without being therefore made on purpose, and worketh these effects : it roweth, it draweth, it driveth, (if need be) to pass London Bridge against the stream at low-water, and a boat laying at anchor, the engine may be used for loading or unloading." But it would not be possible for any one to make an engine after the description given in the ' Scantlings ;' and to a generation unacquainted with the powers of steam, his suggestions would be altogether without meaning. The strongest evidence which could be adduced of the ambiguity of the Marquis's 'Articles' is to be found in the fact that the various ingenious writers who have given plans of his supposed engine have represented it in widely different forms. Farey assumes that it worked by the expansive force of steam ; Bourne, that it worked by condensation and atmospheric pressure ; Dircks infers that it included such ingenious expedients as valves and even a four-way cock, worked by a lever-handle ; Stuart, that it contained a cylinder and piston, and was, in fact, a complete high-pressure lever-engine. Again, the drawings of the various writers on engineering who have attempted to reproduce the engine of Stuart, 1 Mr. Woodcroft is, however, of opinion that the Marquis's contrivance was but a boat with paddle-wheels, with an axis across it, which axis was turned by the action of the stream on the paddles, and thus wound up a rope and dragged the boat onward to the other end of the rope fixed by an anchor ; certainly a more clumsy and less notable contrivance than that of a htt-amboat. 24 SEEKS ACCESS TO THE KING. CHAP. I. Galloway, Millington, and Dircks differ in essential respects. 4 When Watt was on one occasion asked for his opinion as to the precise nature of the Marquis's contrivance, his answer was, that the descriptions given were too obscure to enable any definite opinion to be formed on the subject ; but he thought that the expansive power of steam was the principle on which the engine worked. He added, that no one could possibly erect an engine after the Marquis's 6 Scantlings,' and that any inventor desirous of constructing a steam-engine would have to begin again at the beginning. But though the Marquis did not leave the steam-engine in such a state as to be taken up and adopted as a practicable working power, he at least advanced it several important steps. In this world, it is not given to man to finish ; to persevere, to improve, and to advance, are all that can be hoped for ; and these are enough for the real philosopher. Little remains to be told of the unfortunate Marquis's history. His water-commanding engine proved of no service to him. It only increased his embarrassments by involving him in further debts. The Restoration, though it gave him back his estates, did not mend his fortunes, and he continued to importune his friends for loans. He sought access to the King by petition ; but it became more and more difficult to approach him. On one occasion he tried to accomplish his purpose through the influence of his Majesty's mistress, Lady Castlemaine. Provided she could persuade the king to grant his request, he offered to present to her " a thousand pieces to buy her a little jewel, which she deserves to wear every day of the week. And if it please God I live but two years," he added, " I will, out of the profits of my water-commanding engine, appropriate four hundred pounds yearly, for ever, to her Grace's disposal all which, as I am a gentleman and a Christian, shall be faithfully and most thankfully performed ; though the benefit I pretend to by my petition will not amount to CHAP. I. HIS EMBARRASSMENTS INCREASE. 25 what my gratitude obliges, yet the satisfaction which it will be to my mind, and my credit therein at stake, I value at ten times as much. And this will enable me to place my Water-commanding Engine, when I am certained of an hundred pounds a day profit, without further troubling the king or anybody." 1 All his piteous importunity proved of no avail. His friends turned aside from his petitionings, and the king would give him no help. He came to be regarded as a crack-brained enthusiast, and a wild projector of impracticable things. He could not find any one to believe in his water-commanding engine, though he himself regarded it as of greater worth than either his titles or his estates. It had been his own creation the child of his brain the product of studies and experi- ments extending over nearly forty years. But what signified all this if no one would make use of the invention ? His difficulties and embarrassments grew from day to day ; and his projects met with increased contumely and even contempt. None valued them, because none understood them. It was even proposed to appro- priate to other purposes the premises at Yauxhall, on which he so much plumed himself, but which he had been unable to purchase. To prevent this, he again petitioned the king in 1666, representing that he had expended 9000. in building the house he occupied there as " an operatory for engineers and artists to make public works in," and " above 50,000^. trying conclu- sions of arts in that operatory which may be useful to his Majesty and his kingdom;" and he concluded by praying that Yauxhall might be granted to him at a fee-farm rent. The Marchioness, his wife, at the same time petitioned the House of Lords, representing the state of poverty to which her husband had been reduced, and that, in consequence of an execution having been 1 Letter to sonic person unknown, quoted by Mr. Dircks from the Badminton MSS. Dircks's 'Life, Times,' &c., 276. 26 DEATH OF THE MARQUIS. CHAP. I. put in at Worcester House, through a debt of 6000/. which the Marquis had incurred in 1642 to pay the garrison of Monmouth, then in a state of mutiny, he was actually threatened to be turned out of house and home. It is riot known what came of this petition ; but shortly after its presentation the poor Marquis was beyond all worldly help. Broken in health, harassed, embarrassed, and disappointed, he died in April, 1667, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, and his remains were conveyed to Raglan for interment in the family vault. It will be remembered that the Marquis concluded the 98th article of his ' Century ' with the words, " I call this a semi-omnipotent engine, and do intend that a model thereof be buried with me." A diligent search for the model has recently been made in the vault under Raglan church, under the direction of Mr. Berinet Woodcroft, whose enthusiasm as a collector of primitive engines and machines is so well known ; but the search proved unsuccessful, and no traces of the Marquis's model could be found. KDINS OF RAGLAN CASTLE. [By Percival Skelton.J CHAP. II. ZEAL OF THE MARCHIONESS. 27 CHAPTEK II. SIR SAMUEL MORLAND DR. DIONYSITJS PAPIN. AFTER the death of the Marquis of Worcester, the Marchioness, his widow, made various efforts to turn his inventions to account. Sceptical though the world was as to their utility, she fully believed in them ; and now that he was gone, it would have been dishonouring to his memory to entertain a doubt as to his engine being able to do all that he had promised. The Marchioness had not only to maintain the fame of her dear husband, but to endeavour, if possible, to pay the debts he had contracted in prosecuting his inventions. She accor- dingly sought to interest persons of authority and influence in the water-commanding engine, and seized every opportunity of bringing it into notice. To such an extent did the Marchioness carry her zeal, that her friends began to fear lest her mind was be- coming disordered ; and her father-confessor was re- quested to expostulate with her as to the impropriety of her conduct. He accordingly implored her to desist from her vain endeavours to get " great sums of money from the King to pay her deceased lord's debts, en- riching herself by the great machine, and the like." He added that he feared " the devil, to make his sugges- tions the more prevalent, doth make use of some motives that seem plausible, as of paying your lord's debts, of founding monasteries, and the like ;'' pointing out that the end did not justify the means, and that such under- takings were improper for her ladyship, and by no means likely to be attended with success. It is not im- 28 SIR SAMUEL MORLAND. CHAP. II. probable that these representations had their effect ; the more especially as the Marchioness was no more suc- cessful in inducing the public to adopt the invention than the Marquis himself had been. Accordingly, the water-commanding engine very shortly dropped out of sight, and in the course of a few years was almost entirely forgotten. The steam-engine project, however, did not die; it only slept. It had been the fruit thus far of noble effort, of persevering self-denial, and unquestionable skill. What was good in it would yet live, and reappear per- haps in other forms, to vindicate the sagacity and fore- sight of its inventor. Even during the Marquis's lifetime other minds besides his were diligently pursuing the same subject. Indeed, his enthusiasm was of a kind especially calculated to inflame other minds; and the success he had achieved with his engine, imperfect though it might be, was of so novel and original a cha- racter that it could not fail to excite a warm interest amongst men of like mechanical genius. One of the most distinguished of these was Sir Samuel Morland, appointed Master of Mechanics to Charles II. immediately after the Restoration. He had been for some time previously in the employment of the Pro- tectorate. He formed one of the embassy to Sweden, with Whitlocke, in 1653. Some years later he took an active part in the relief of the sufferings of the per- secuted Protestants of Piedmont whose history he afterwards wrote, having been appointed Commissioner Extraordinary for the distribution of the collected moneys. For some time he officiated as assistant to Thurloe, Crom well's secretary ; and it was while acting in this capacity that he became cognisant of a plot against the life of Charles II., then in exile. Morland divulged the plot to the king's friends, and thereby perhaps sa\ 7 ed his life. For this service, Charles, on his Restoration, presented him with a medal, as a badge CHAP. II. HIS PUMPS AND FIRE-ENGINES. 29 of his signal loyalty, and also appointed him Master of Mechanics. From that time until the close of his life, Morland devoted himself entirely to mechanical studies. Among his various inventions may be mentioned the speaking- trumpet; 1 two arithmetical machines, of which he pub- lished an illustrated description ; the capstan to heave ships' anchors ; and various kinds of pumps and water engines. His pumps were of a very powerful arid effective kind. One of them, worked by eight men, forced water from the Thames at Blackmoor Park, near Winkfield, to the top of Windsor Castle. He also devoted himself to the improvement of the fire-engine, in which he employed a cylinder and piston, as well as a stuffing-box. Towards the later years of his life, he applied himself more particularly to the study of the powers and uses of steam. 2 In 1677, we find him taking a lease of Yauxhall, most probably the identical house occupied by the Marquis of Worcester, where he conducted a series of experiments as to the power requisite to raise water by cylinders of different dimensions. 3 It is not, 1 We are informed that Morland's Tuba Stentorphornica, or speaking- trumpet, is still to be seen at Trinity College, Cambridge. Butler, in his * Hudibras,' alludes to the inven- tion : " I heard a formidable voice Loud as the stentorphornic noise." 2 His first idea seems to have been to employ gunpowder for the pro- duction of motive power, for in the * Calendar of State Papers ' (Dom) we find the following entry : " Deer, llth, 1691. Warrant for a grant to Sir Samuel Morland of the sole use for 14 years of his invention for rais- ing water out of pits, &c., to a reason- able height, by the force of powder and air conjointly." (' Entry Book,' V., p. 85.) In vol. XLVL, p. 49, we find this entry under the same date : " Warrant for a grant to Sir S. Morland of the sole making of an engine in- vented by him for raising water in mines or pits, draining marshes, or supplying buildings with water." 3 The * Harleian Miscellany ' (Brit. Mus.), No. 5771, contains the follow- ing brief tract in French, written by Morland in 1682. It is on vellum, and entitled * Les Principes de la Nouvelle Force de Feu :' " L'eau estant evaperee par la force de feu, ces vapeurs demandent incontinant une plus grand'espace [environ deux mille fois] que 1'eau n'occupoiet au- paravant, et plus tost que d'etre tou- jours emprisonn6s, feroient crever une piece de canon. Mais estant bien gouvernees selon les regies de la sta- tique, et par science reduites a la mesure an poids, et a la balance, alors elles portent paisiblement leurs far- deaux [comme des bons chevaux] et ainsy seroient elles du grand usage an 30 HIS POVERTY AND BLINDNESS. CHAP. II. however, known that he ever erected a steam-engine. If he did, no account of its performances has been preserved. Morland's inventions proved of no greater advan- tage to him than those of the Marquis of Worcester had done. His later years were spent in poverty and blindness, and he must have perished but for the charitable kindness of Archbishop Tenison and a few other friends. Evelyn gives the following interesting account of a visit to him in October, 1695, two months before his death : " The Archbishop and myself went to Hammersmith to visit Sir Samuel Morland, who was entirely blind; a very mortifying sight. He showed me his invention of writing, which was very ingenious ; also his wooden calendar, which instructed him all by feeling, and other pretty and useful inventions of mills, pumps, &c., and the pump he had erected that serves water to his garden, and to passengers, with an inscrip- tion, and brings from a filthy part of the Thames now near it, a most perfect and pure water. He had newly buried 200/. worth of music books, being, as he said, love songs and vanity. He plays himself psalms and religious hymns on the theorbo." The inscription to which Evelyn refers was on a stone tablet fixed on the wall of his house, still preserved, which runs thus : " SIR SAMUEL MORLAND'S WELL, the use of which he freely gives to all persons : hoping that none who shall come after him, will adventure to incur God's displeasure, by denying a cup of cold water (provided at another's cost and not their own) to either neighbour, stranger, passenger, or poor thirsty beggar. July 8, 1695." The next prominent experimenter on the powers of gendre humain, particulierement pour 1'elevation des eaux, selon la table suivante que marque les nombres des livres qui pourrant estre leve's 1800 fois par heure, a 6 pouces de levee, par de cylindres a moitie remplies d'eau, ausi bien que les divers diamctres et profondeurs dc-s dit cylindres." Tables are then given, showing the pmvcr requisite to raise given quantities of water to certain heights by cylinders of different dimensions. CHAP. IT. DK. DIOXYSIUS PAPTX. 31 D1ONYS1OS PAPIN, M.TX, P.K.S. steam was Dr. Dionysius Papin. He was born at Blois about the middle of the seventeenth century, and educated to the profession of medicine. After taking his degree at Paris, he turned his attention more particularly to the study of physics, which soon occupied his whole atten- tion ; and under the celebrated Huyghens, then resident in that city, he made rapid progress. He would, doubt- less, have risen to great distinction in his own country, but for the circumstance of his being a Protestant. To escape the persecutions to which all members of that persuasion were then subject, Papin fled from France in 1681, together with thousands of his countrymen, a few years before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He took refuge in London, where he was welcomed by men of science, and more especially by the celebrated Boyle, under whose auspices he was introduced to the 32 PAPIN'S DIGESTER. CHAP. II. Eoyal Society, of which he was appointed Curator at an annual salary. It formed part of Papin's duty, in connection with his new office, to produce an experiment at each meeting of the Society. He was thus induced to prosecute the study of physical science ; and in order to stimulate the interest of the members, he sought to introduce new subjects from time to time to their notice. One of the greatest novelties of his "entertainments" was the pro- duction of his well-known Digester, which excited a considerable degree of interest; and on one occasion a philosophical supper, cooked by the Digester, was served up to the Fellows, of which Evelyn gives an amusing account in his Diary. He was led to the invention of the Digester by certain experiments which he made for Boyle. He discovered that if the vapour of boiling water could be prevented escaping, the temperature of the water would be raised much above the boiling point ; and it occurred to him to employ this increased heat in more effectually extracting nutritious matter from the bones of animals, until then thrown away as useless. The great strength required for his Digester, and the means he was obliged to adopt for the purpose of securely confining the cover, must have early shown him what a powerful agent he was experimenting on. To prevent the bursting of the vessel from the internal pressure, he was led to the invention of the safety-valve, which consisted of a small moveable plate, or cylinder, fitted into an opening in the cover of the boiler, and kept shut by a lever loaded with a weight, capable of sliding along it in the man- ner of a steel yard. The pressure of the weight upon the valve could thus be regulated at pleasure. When the pressure became so great as to endanger the safety of the boiler, the valve was forced up, and so permitted the steam to escape. Although Papin was thus the inventor of the safety-valve, it is a curious fact that he CHAP. 11. PAPIN'S EXPERIMENTS. 33 did not apply it to the steam-machine which he subse- quently invented, but adopted another expedient. The reputation of Papin having extended to Germany, he was, in 1687, invited to fill the office of Professor of Mathematics in the University of Marburg, and accepted the appointment. He continued, however, to maintain a friendly correspondence with his scientific friends in England, and communicated to the Royal Society the results of the experiments in physics which he con- tinued to pursue. In the same year in which he settled at Marburg, he submitted to the Society an important paper, which indicated the direction in which his thoughts were then running. It had occurred to him, as it had before done to Hautefeuille, that the explosion of gunpowder presented a ready means of producing a power to elevate a piston in a tube or cylinder, and that, when so raised, a vacuum could be formed under the piston by condensing the vapour, and so ensuring its return by the pressure of the atmosphere. He thought that he might thus be enabled to secure an efficient moving force. But it was found in practice, that the proposed power was too violent as well as un- certain, and it was shortly given up as impracticable. Papin next inquired whether his proposed elastic force and subsequent vacuum might not better be pro- duced by means of steam. He accordingly entered upon a series of experiments, which gradually led . him to the important conclusions published in his celebrated paper on "A New Method of Obtaining very Great Moving Powers at Small Cost," which appeared in the 6 Acta Eruditorum' of Leipsic, in 1790. "I felt con- fident," he there observes, " that machines might be constructed wherein water, by means of no very intense heat, and at small cost, might produce that perfect vacuum which had failed to be obtained by means of gunpowder." He accordingly contrived a machine to illustrate this idea, but it was very imperfect and slow D 34: PAPIN'S DISADVANTAGE. CHAP. II. in its action, as may well be imagined from the circum- stance that to produce the condensation he did not apply cold, but merely took away the fire! Still he was successfully working out, step by step, the important problem of steam power. He clearly perceived that a piston might be raised in a cylinder by the elastic force of steam, and that on the production of a vacuum by its condensation, the piston might be driven home again by the pressure of the atmosphere. The question was, how was this idea to be realised in a practicable working machine ? After many experiments, Papin had the courage to make the attempt to pump water by atmospheric pressure on a large scale. He was em- ployed to erect machines after his principle, for the purpose of draining mines in Auvergne and Westphalia ; but from the difficulty he experienced in procuring and preserving a vacuum, and the tediousness of the process, his enterprise proved abortive. The truth is, that fertile though Papin was in con- ception, he laboured under the greatest possible dis- advantage in not being a mechanic. The eyes and hands of others are not to be relied on in the execution of new and untried machines. Unless eyes and hands be disciplined by experience in skilled work, and inspired by intelligence, they are comparatively useless. The chances of success are vastly greater when mind, eyes, and hands, are combined in one person. Hence the unquestionable fact that though the motive power of steam had long been the subject of ingenious specula- tion and elaborate experiment amongst scientific men, it failed to be adopted as a practicable working power until it was taken in hand by mechanics by such men as Newcomen, the blacksmith ; Potter, the engine-driver ; Brindley, the millwright ; and, above all, by James Watt, the mathematical instrument maker. The sagacious foresight of Papin as to the extensive applicability of steam-power as a motive agent, is CHAP. II. PROPOSED STEAM-BOAT. 35 strikingly shown by the following passage in the paper above referred to : " If any one," says he, " will consider the magnitude of the forces to be obtained in this way (i. e., by the atmospheric high-pressure engine he was suggesting), and the trifling expense at which a suffi- cient quantity of fuel can be procured, he will certainly admit that this very method is far preferable to the use of gunpowder above spoken of, especially as in this way a perfect vacuum is obtained, and so the incon- veniences above recounted are avoided. In what manner that power can be applied to draw water or ore from mines, to discharge iron bullets to a great distance, to propel ships against the wind, and to a multitude of other similar purposes, it would be too long here to detail ; but each individual, according to the particular occasion, must select the construction of machinery appropriate to his purpose." This last was, however, the real difficulty to be overcome. Steam, doubtless, contained a power to do all these things ; but as for the machine that would work quietly, docilely, and effectively, in pumping water, discharging bullets, or propelling ships, the mechanic had not yet appeared that was able to make one. Papin was, however, a man of great perseverance ; and, strong in his faith as to the power of steam to propel ships, he gradually worked his way to the con- trivance of a model steamboat. When in London, he had seen an experiment tried by the Prince Palatine Rupert on the Thames, in which a boat fitted with revolving paddles attached to the two ends of an axle which received its motion from a trundle working on a wheel turned round by horses, went with such rapidity as to leave the king's barge, manned by sixteen rowers, far behind in the race. The idea which occurred to Papin was, to apply a steam machine to drive the paddles, and thus ensure a ship's motion independent of wind or tide. For this purpose, it was necessary to 36 BLASCO GAHAY. CHAP. II. convert the alternate motion of the piston-rod into a continuous rotary one ; and this he proposed to effect "by having the rods of the pistons fitted with teeth, which would force round small wheels, toothed in like manner, fastened to the axis of the paddles." The use of paddle-wheels in propelling boats had long been known. The Harleian MSS. contain an Italian book of sketches, attributed to the fifteenth century, in which there appears the annexed sketch of a paddle- boat. This boat was evidently intended to be worked by two men turning the crank by which the paddles were made to revolve. There were many other early schemes of paddle-boats, some of which were pro- posed to be worked by horse- power . The name of Blasco Garay has often been men- tioned as the first who ap- plied the power of steam to the driving of paddle-boats ; but for this there is not the slightest foundation. M. Ber- genroth informs us that he has carefully examined all the documents relating to the trials of Blasco Garay in the archives at Simancas, but has found no reference whatever to steam as the power employed in causing the paddles to revolve. 1 The experiments were made at ANCIENT PADDLE-BOAT. 1 M. Bergenroth says the documents at Simancas consist of 1. A holo- graph letter of Blasco Garay to the Emperor, dated Malaga, 10th Sept., 1540, containing his report on the trial trip of one of his paddle-wheel ships ; 2. The report of the Captain Antonio Destigarura on the same trial trip; 3. The report of the Provcedores of Malaga concerning the same trip, dated 27th July, 1540 ; 4. The report of Blasco Garay to the Emperor, dated 6th July, 1543, concerning the trial trip of another of his paddle-wheel ships made at Barcelona in June, 1543 ; 5. A letter of Blasco Garay to Carrs, dated 20th June, 1543. In none of these is there to be found any reference to steam-power ; but only to the power of men employed in driving the paddle-wheels. This is confirmed by the independent examination of the same documents by J. Macgregor, Esq., of the Temple, who gives the result in a Letter to Bennet Woodcraft, Esq., inserted as a note to the ' Abridg- ments of the Specifications relating to Steam Propulsion,' pp. 105-7. CHAP. IT. PAPIN'S MODEL STEAM-BOAT. 37 Malaga and Barcelona respectively, in the years 1540 and 1543 : in one the vessel was propelled by a paddle- wheel on each side worked by twenty-five men, and in the other by a paddle-wheel worked by forty men. It appears probable that although others before Papin had speculated as to the possibility of constructing a boat to be driven by the power of steam, he was the first to test the theory by actual experiment ; the first to con- struct a model steamboat. His first experiments were doubtless failures. The engine contrived by himself was found inapplicable to the driving of ships, as it had been to the pumping of mines ; and it was not until he saw the model of Savery's engine exhibited to the Eoyal Society of London, in 1698, and witnessed the trial of the same inventors paddle-wheel boat on the Thames in the course of the same year that it occurred to him to com- bine the two contrivances in one, and apply Savery's engine to drive Savery's paddle-wheels. Returning to Marburg, he proceeded with his experiments, and in- formed Liebnitz that he had employed both suction and pressure by steam ; that he had made a model of a car- riage propelled by this force, which succeeded ; and he hoped that the same power would answer for boats. Papin prosecuted his idea with great zeal, trying many expedients, encountering many difficulties, and meeting with many disappointments. At length, after about fifteen years' labour, he succeeded in constructing a model engine, fitted in a boat "une petite machine d'unvaisseau a roues" which worked to his satisfaction. His next object was to get his model transported to London, to exhibit it on the Thames. " It is important," he writes to Liebnitz (7th July, 1707), "that my new construction of vessel should be put to the proof in a seaport like London, where there is depth enough to apply the new invention, which, by means of fire, will render one or two men capable of producing more eifect than some hundreds of rowers." Papin had consider- 38 THE MODEL DESTROYED. CHAP. II. able difficulty in obtaining the requisite permission from the authorities to enable his model to pass from the Fulda to the Weser ; but at length he succeeded, and the little vessel reached Miinden, when, to Papin's great grief, it was, seized by the boatmen of the river, and barbarously destroyed. The year after this calamity befel Papin's machine he wrote an urgent letter to his old friends of the Eoyal Society at London, asking them to advance him sufficient money to construct another engine " and to fit it so that it might be applied for the rowing of ships." The Society, however, did not see their way to assisting Papin in the manner proposed, most likely because of the expense as well as uncertainty of the experiment. Two years later, worn out by work and anxiety, the illustrious exile died ; and it was left for other labourers to realise the great ideas he had formed as to locomotion by steam-power. The apparently resultless labours of these men will serve to show what a long, anxious, and toilsome process the invention of the steam-engine has been. The early inventors had not the gratification of seeing their toils rewarded by even the faintest glimmering of practical success. One after another, they took up the subject, spent days and nights of study over it, and, laying down their lives, there left it. To many the study brought nothing but anxiety, toil, distress, and sometimes ruin ; while some fairly broke their hearts over it. But it was never abandoned. Disregarding the fate of their pre- decessors, one labourer after another resumed the inves- tigation, advancing it by further stages, until at length the practicable working steam-engine was invented, pre- senting, perhaps, the most remarkable illustration of the power of human skill and perseverance to be found in the whole history of civilisation. CHAP. III. THOMAS SAVERY. 39 CHAPTEK III. CAPTAIN SAVERY His FIRE-ENGINE. THE attempts hitherto made to invent a working steam- engine, it will be observed, had not been attended with much success. The most that could be said of them was, that, by demonstrating the impracticable, they were gradually leading other experimenters in the direction of the practicable. Although the progress made seemed but slow, the amount of net result was by no means in- considerable. Men were becoming better acquainted with the elastic force of steam. The vacuum produced by its condensation in a closed vessel, and the con- sequent atmospheric pressure, had been illustrated by repeated experiments ; and many separate and minor inventions, which afterwards proved of great value, had been made, such as the four-way cock, the safety-valve, and the piston moving in a cylinder. The principle of a true steam-engine had not only been demonstrated, but most of the separate parts of such an engine had been contrived by various inventors. It seemed as if all that was now wanting was a genius of more than ordi- nary power to combine them in a complete and effective whole. To Thomas Savery is usually accorded the merit of having constructed the first actual working steam-engine. Little is known of his early history ; and various sur- mises have been formed as to his origin and calling. Some writers have described him as the captain of a tin- mine ; others as a naval captain ; while a third says he was an immigrant Frenchman. 1 We are, however, Burn, 'History of Foreign Protestant Refugees,' 261. 40 THE SAVERY FAMILY. CHAP. TIT. enabled to state, from information communicated by his descendants, that he was the scion of a well-known Devonshire family. John Savery, of Halberton, or Harberton, afterwards of Great Totness, was a gentleman of considerable property in the reign of Henry VIII. In the sixteenth century the Saverys became connected by marriage with the Servingtons of Tavistock, another old county family, one of whom served as sheriff in the reign of Edward III. In 1588, Christopher Savery, the head of the family, resided in Totness Castle, of which he was the owner ; and for a period of nearly forty years the town was represented in Parliament by members of the Savery family. Sir Charles served as Sheriff of Devon in 1619. Though the Saverys took the side of the Parliament, in resisting the despotic power assumed by Charles I., they nevertheless held a moderate course; for we find Colonel Savery, in 1643, attaching his name to the famous " round robin" pre- sented to Parliament. Richard Savery, the youngest son of the Colonel, was father of Thomas Savery, the inventor of the " fire-engine." Other members of the Savery family, besides Thomas, were distinguished for their prosecution of physical science. Thus we find from the family MSS., Servington Savery correspond- ing with Dr. Jurin, Secretary to the Royal Society, respecting an improvement which he had made in the barometer, and communicating the results of some mag- netic experiments of a novel kind, which he had recently performed. 4 Thomas Savery was born at Shilston, near Modbury, in Devon, about the year 1650. Nothing is known of 1 In a letter, dated Shilston, August 9th, 1727, he writes: "The late Mr, Thomas Savery, inventor of the en- gines for rowing, and raising water by fire, was, I believe, well known to several of the Royal Society, perhaps to the President ; but as I am a per- fect stranger, do acquaint you that his father was youngest brother to my grandfather. The late Servington Savery, M.D., of Marlborough, \vas one of my family, viz., a brother t<> my deceased father." CHAP. TIT. SAVERY'S EARLY INVENTIONS. 41 his early life, beyond that he was educated to the pro- fession of a military engineer, and in course of time duly reached the rank of Trench-master. The corps of en- gineers was not, however, regarded as an essential part of the military force until the year 1787, when the officers ranked with those of the Roval Artillery. The THOMAS SAVER?, F.K.S. pursuit of his profession, as well as his natural disposi- tion, led Savery to the study of mechanics, and he he- came well accomplished in the physical knowledge of his time. He occupied much of his spare time in mechanical experiments, and in projecting and executing contri- vances of various sorts. One of his early works was a 42 HIS PADDLE-BOAT. CHAP. IIL clock, still preserved in the family, 1 which until lately kept very good time ; and when last repaired by a watchmaker of Modbury was pronounced to be a piece of very good work, of a peculiar construction, displaying 'much ingenuity. Another of Savery' s early contrivances was a machine for polishing plate-glass, for which he obtained a patent. He was occupied about the same time with an invention for rowing ships in calms by the mechanical apparatus subsequently described in his treatise, entitled ' Naviga- tion Improved.' He there relates how it troubled his thoughts and racked his brains to find out this invention, which he accomplished after many experiments, con- ducted " with great charge." He naturally set much value on the product of so much study and labour ; and he was proportionately vexed on finding that others regarded* it with indifference. He professed to have had " promises of a great reward from the Court, if the thing would answer the end for which he proposed it ;" but instead of a reward, Savery received only. contumely and scorn. He attributed his want of success to the ill- humour of the then Surveyor of the Navy, who reported against his engine, because, said he, " it's the nature of some men to decry all inventions that are not the pro- duct of their own brains." He only asked for a fair trial of his paddle-boat, believing in its efficiency and utility; declaring , that it was not his " fondness for his own bratt that made him think so," but the favourable opinions of several very judicious persons in town, that encouraged him to urge his invention for public adoption. The invention in question consisted of a boat mounted with two paddle-wheels, one on each side, worked by a capstan placed in the centre of the vessel. The annexed 1 It is now in the possession of Capt. Lowe, of the 26th Regiment, whose grand-aunt was a Miss Savery of Sliil- ston. CHAP. III. HIS SCHEME OPPOSED. 43 SECTION OF SAVERY'S PADDLE-BOAT. cut will show the nature of the arrangement, which probably did not differ much from the scheme of Blasco Garay, above referred to. Savery says he was led to make the \] !, invention through the difficulty which had been expe- rienced in get- ting ships in HH motion so as to place them alongside of the enemy in sea- fights, especially during calm weather. He" thought that if our fighting-ships could be made to move inde- pendent of the winds, we should thereby possess an advantage of essential consequence to the public service. " The gentlemen," said he, " that were on the Brest expe- dition with my Lord Caermarthen must know how useful this engine would have been ; for had they had them there on board each ship, they might have moved themselves where they had pleased." He also urged the usefulness of the engine for packet-boats, bomb- vessels, and sloops, and especially for use in sea-fights, in bringing off dis- abled ships. When he had completed his invention, he took steps to bring it under the notice of Mr. Secretary Trenchard. The plan was shown to the King, who thought highly of it, and referred Savery to the Admi- ralty. When he went there he was told that he should have gone to the Navy Board. At the Navy Board he was told that certain objections to the adoption of his scheme had already been sent to the Admiralty. Savery having ascertained that the Surveyor was himself the author of the objections, proceeded to discuss 44 SAVEBTS YACHT. CHAP. III. the matter with him. But the Surveyor was not a man to be argued out of his views by an inventor ; and he shut up Savery with the remark : " What have inter- loping people, that have no concern with us, to do to pretend to contrive or invent things for us ? " Savery was highly indignant at the official snub, and published the conversation in his Treatise. " Though one has found out," said he, " an improvement as great to shipping as turning to windward or the Compass, unless you can sit round the Green Table in Crutched Friars, your in- vention is damned, of course ;" and the testy inventor concluded : " All I have now to add is, that whoever is angry with the Truth for appearing in mean language may as well be angry with an honest man for his plain habit ; for, indeed, it is as common for Lyes and Non- sense to be disguised by a jingle of words as for a Block- head to be hid by abundance of Peruke." 1 Notwithstanding his rebuff by the Navy Surveyor, Savery proceeded to fit up a small yacht with his engine, and tried an experiment with it on the Thames, in sight of many thousands of spectators. The experiment was, in his opinion, entirely successful. The yacht, manned by eight sailors working the capstan, passed a ketch with all its sails spread, as well as other vessels. " All people," said Savery, " seemed to like the demonstration of the use of my engine, the public newspapers speaking very largely of it, yet all to no purpose." Savery had already expended 200. in his experiments on the paddle- wheel boat, and was not disposed to go any further, now that Government had decided not to take up the invention. Indeed, its practical utility was doubtful. The power of the wind was, after all, better than hand- labour for working large ships ; and it continued to 1 * Navigation Improved ; or the Art of Rowing Ships of all rates in calms, with a more easy, swift and steady mo- tion than oars can. Also, a descrip- tion of the engine that performs it ; and the Author's answer to all Mr. Drummer's objections that have been made against it. By Tho. Gent. London, 1098.' avory, CHAP. III. MINES OF COKNWALL. 45 maintain its superiority until the steam-engine was brought to perfection. It is curious that it should not have occurred to Savery, who invented both a paddle-wheel boat and a steam- engine, to combine the two in one machine ; but he was probably sick of the former invention, which had given him so much vexation and annoyance, and gave it up in disgust, leaving it to Papin, who saw both his inven- tions at work, to hit upon the grand idea of combining the two in a steam-vessel, the only machine capable of effectually and satisfactorily rowing ships in a calm, or against wind and tide. It is probable that Savery was led to enter upon his next and most important invention by the circumstance of his having been brought up in the neighbourhood of the mining districts, and being well aware of the great difficulty experienced by the miners in keeping their pits clear of water, to enable them to proceed with their underground operations. The early tin-mining of Cornwall was for the most part what was called " stream-work," being confined mainly to washing and collecting the diluvial deposits of the ore. Mines usually grew out of these stream-works ; the ground was laid open at the back of the lodes, and the ore was dug out as from a quarry. Some of these old openings, called " coffins," are still to be met with in different parts of Cornwall. The miners did not venture much below the surface, for fear of the water, by which they were constantly liable to be drowned out. But as the upper strata became exhausted, they were tempted to go deeper in search of the richer ores. Shafts were sunk to the lodes, and they were followed underground. Then it was that the difficulty of water had to be en- countered and overcome ; for unless it could be got rid of, the deeper ores of Cornwall were as so much buried treasure. When the mines were of no great depth, it was possible to bale out the water by hand-buckets. 46 PUMPING MACHINERY. CHAP. III. But this expedient was soon exhausted ; and the power of horses was then employed to draw the buckets. Where the lodes ran along a hill-side, it was possible, by driving an adit from a lower point, to let off the water by natural drainage. But this was not often found practicable, and in most cases it had to be raised directly from the shafts by artificial methods. As the quantity increased, a whim or gin moving on a perpendicular axis was employed to draw the water. 1 An improve- ment on this was the rack and chain pump, consisting of an endless iron chain mounted with knobs of cloth stiffened with leather, inclosed in a wooden pump of from six to eight inches bore, the lower part of which rested in the well of the mine. The chain was turned round by a wheel two or three feet in diameter, usually worked by men, and the knobs with which it was mounted brought up a stream of water according to the dimensions of the pump. Another method, considered the most effectual of all, was known as " the water- wheel and bobs," consisting of a powerful pump, or series of pumps, worked by a water-wheel. But although there is no want of water underground in Cornwall, and no want of rain above ground, there are few or no great water-courses capable of driving machinery; besides, as the mines are for the most part situated on high ground, it will be obvious that water-power was available to only a very limited extent for this purpose. It is also worthy of notice that the early mining of Cornwall was carried on by men of small capital, prin- cipally by working men, who were unable to expend any large amount of money in forming artificial reser- voirs, or in erecting the powerful pumping machinery 1 Mr. Davies Gilbert says even this method was comparatively modern, as he remembered a carpenter who used to boast that he had assisted in mak- ing the first whim ever seen westward of Hayle. Davies, * Parochial History of Cornwall,' London, 1838, ii. 83. CHAP. III. PRIMITIVE DAYS OF MINING. 47 necessary for keeping the deeper mines clear of water. The Cornish miners, like the Whitstable oyster- dredgers, worked upon the principle of co-operation. This doctrine, now taught as a modern one, was prac- tised by them almost time out of mind. The owner of the land gave the use of his land, the adventurers gave their money, and the miners their labour ; all sharing in the proceeds according to ancient custom. For the use of his land, and for the ore taken from the mine, the lord usually took a sixth part ; but in consideration of draining the mine, and in order to encourage the adventure, he was often content with an eighth, or it might be only a tenth part of the produce. The miners, on their part, agreed to divide in the proportions in which they took part in the work. Their shares of the ore raised were measured by barrows, and parcelled into heaps ; " and it is surprising," says Borlase, " to see how ready and exact the reckoners are in dividing, though oftentimes they can neither write nor read. The parcels being laid forth, lots are cast, and then every parcel has a distinct mark laid on it with one, two, or three stones, and sometimes a bit of stick or turf stuck up in the middle or side of the pile; and when these marks are laid on, the parcels may continue there half a year or more unmolested." * These were, however, the early and primitive days of mining, when the operations were carried on com- paratively near the surface, and the capital invested in pumping-machinery was comparatively small in amount. As the miners went deeper and deeper into the ground, and the richer lodes were struck and followed, the cha- racter of mining became considerably changed. Larger capitals were required to sink the shafts and keep them clear of water until the ore was reached ; and a new class of men, outside the mining districts, was induced Borlase, 'Natural History of Cornwall,' 175-6. 48 SAVERY'S EXPERIMENTS. CHAP. III. to venture their money in the mines as a speculation. Yet the system above described, though greatly modified by altered circumstances, continues to this day ; and the mining of Cornwall continues to be carried on mainly upon the co-operative or joint-stock system. When the surface lodes became exhausted, the necessity of employing some more efficient method of pumping the water became more and more urgent. In one pit after another the miners were being drowned out, and the operations of an important branch of national industry were in danger of being brought to a complete standstill. It was under these circumstances that Captain Savery turned his attention to the contrivance of a more powerful engine for the raising of water ; and after various experiments, he became persuaded that the most effective agency for the purpose was the power of steam. It is very probable that he was aware of the attempts that had been previously made in the same direction, and he may have gathered many useful and suggestive hints from the Marquis of Worcester's 4 Century ; ' but as that book contained no plans nor precise definitions of the methods by which the Marquis had accomplished his objects, it could have helped him but little towards the contrivance of a practicable working engine. 1 How Savery was led to the study of the power of steam has been differently stated. Desaguliers says his own account was this, that having drunk a flask of Florence at a tavern, and thrown the empty flask on the 1 The absurd story is told by Dr. Desaguliers (* Experimental Philo- sophy,' ii. 465) that Savery, having read the Marquis's book, "was the first to put in practice the raising of water by fire, which he proposed for the draining of mines;" and having copied the Marquis's engine, "the better to conceal the matter, bought up all the Marquis of Worcester's books that he could purchase in Pater- noster-row and elsewhere, and burned 'em in the presence of the gentleman, his friend, who told me this!" It need scarcely be said that it was very unlikely that Savery should have at- tempted thus to conceal an invention recorded in a printed book which had been in circulation for more than forty years. CHAP. III. SAVERY'S " FIRE ENGINE." 49 fire, he called for a basin of water to wash his hands, and perceiving that the little wine left in the flask had changed to steam, he took the vessel by the neck and plunged its mouth into the water in the basin, when, the steam being condensed, the water was immediately driven up into the flask by the pressure of the atmo- sphere. Desaguliers disbelieved this account, but admits that Savery made many experiments upon the powers of steam, and eventually succeeded in making several engines " which raised water very well." Switzer, who was on intimate terms with Savery, gives another account. He says the first hint from which he took the engine was from a tobacco-pipe, which he immersed in water to wash or cool it ; when he discovered by the rarefaction of the air in the tube by the heat or steam, and the gravitation or pressure of the exterior air on the condensation of the latter, that the water was made to spring through the tube of the pipe in a most surprising manner; 1 and that this phenomenon induced him to search for the rationale, and to prosecute a series of expe- riments which issued in the invention of his fire-engine. However Savery may have obtained his first idea of the expansion and condensation of steam, and of atmos- pheric pressure, it is certain that the subject occupied his attention for many years. He had the usual diffi- culties to encounter in dealing with a wholly new and untried power, in contriving the novel mechanism through w r hich it was to work, and of getting his con- trivances executed by the hands of mechanics necessarily unaccustomed to such kind of work. " Though I was obliged," he says, " to encounter the oddest and almost insuperable difficulties, I spared neither time, pains, nor money, till I had absolutely conquered them." Having sufficiently matured his design, he had a model of his new " Fire Engine," as he termed it, made Switzer, ' System of Hydrostaticks and Hydraulic ks,' London, 1729. E 50 EXHIBITS HIS MODEL. CHAP. III. for exhibition before the King at Hampton Court in 1698. William III., who was himself of a mechanical turn, was highly pleased with the ingenuity displayed in Savery's engine, as well as with its efficient action, and he permitted the inventor to dedicate to him ' The Miner's Friend,' containing the first published descrip- tion of his invention. The King also promoted Savery's application for a Patent, which was secured in July, 1698, 1 and an Act confirming it was passed in the following year. Savery's next step was to bring his invention under the notice of the Royal Society, whose opinion on all matters of science was listened to with profound respect. He accordingly exhibited his model at a meeting held on the 14th of June, 1699, and it is recorded in the minutes of that date, that " Mr. Savery entertained the Society with showing his engine to raise water by the force of fire. He was thanked for showing the experiment, which succeeded according to expectation, and was approved of." The inventor presented the Society with a drawing of his engine, accompanied by a description, which was printed in the 'Transactions.' 2 Savery next endeavoured to bring his invention into practical use, but this was a matter of much greater difficulty. So many schemes with a like object had been brought out and failed, that the mining interest came to regard new projects with increasing suspicion. To persuade them that he was no mere projector, but the inventor of a practicable working engine, Savery wrote and published his ' Miner's Friend.' " I am not very fond," he there said, " of lying under the scandal of 1 The patent is dated the 25th July, 1698, and is entitled, "A grant to Thomas Savery, Gentl., of the sole exercise of a new invencon, by him invented, for raiseing of water, and occasioning mocon to all sort of mill works, by the impellant force of fire, which will be of great use for draining mines, serving towns with water, and for the working of all sorts of mills when they have not the benefit of water nor constant winds ; to hold for 14 years ; with usual clauses." 2 ' Philosophical Transactions,' No. 252. Weld's ' Royal Society,' i. 357. CHAP. III. SAVEKY'S EXPLANATIONS. 51 a bare projector, and therefore present you here with a draught of my machine, and lay before you the uses of it, and leave it to your consideration whether it be worth your while to make use of it or no." Inventors before Savery's time were wont to make a great mystery of their inventions ; but he proclaimed that there was no mystery whatever about his machine, and he believed that the more clearly it was understood, the better it would be appreciated. He acknowledged that there had been many pretenders to new inventions of the same sort, who had excited hopes which had never been fulfilled ; but this invention which he had made was a thing the uses of which were capable of actual demonstration. He urged that the old methods of raising water could not be carried further ; and that an entirely new power was needed to enable the miner to prosecute his underground labours. " I fear," said he, " that whoever by the old causes of motion pretends to im- provements within the last century does betray his know- ledge and judgment. For more than a hundred years since, men and horses would raise by engines then made as much water as they have ever done since, or I believe ever will, or, according to the law of nature, ever can do. And, though my thoughts have been long employed about water-works, I should never have pretended to any invention of that kind, had I not happily found out this new, but yet a much stronger and cheaper force or cause of motion than any before made use of." He proceeded to show how easy it was to work his engine, boys of thirteen, or fourteen years being able to attend and work it to perfection after a few days' teaching, and how he had at length, after great difficulty, instructed handicraft artificers to construct the engine according to his design, so that, after much experience, said he, "they are become such masters of the thing that they oblige themselves to deliver what engines they make exactly tight and fit for service, E 2 52 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLAN. CHAP. III. and as such I dare warrant them to anybody that has occasion for them." ! Savery's engine, as described by him- self, consisted of a series of boilers, con- densing vessels, and tubes, the action of which will be readily understood with the help of the annexed drawing. 2 1 ' The Miner's Friend, or an Engine to Raise Water by Fire, described, and of the manner of fixing it in Mines, with an account of the several uses it is applicable unto ; and an answer to the objections made against it. By Tho. Savery, Gent.' London, 1702. 2 Two boilers, a large, A, A, and a smaller, B, were fixed in a furnace, and connected together at the top by a pipe, c. The larger boiler was filled two-thirds full, and the smaller quite full of water. When that in the larger one was raised to the boiling-point, the handle of the regulator, D, was thrust back as far as it would go, by which the steam forced itself through the pipe connected with the vessel E, expelling the air it contained through the clack at F. The handle of the regulator being then drawn towards you, the communi- cation between the boiler and the vessel, E, was closed, and that between the boiler and the second vessel, G, was opened, which latter was also filled with steam, the air being in like manner dis- charged through the clack, H. Cold water was then poured from the water-cock, T, on to the vessel E, by which the steam was suddenly condensed, and a vacuum being thereby caused, the water to be raised was drawn up through the sucking-pipe, J, its return being prevented by a clack or valve at K. The handle of the regu- lator D being again thrust back, the steam was again admitted, and pressing upon the surface of the water in E, forced it out at the bottom of the vessel and up through the pipe L, from which it was driven into the open air. The handle of the regulator was then reversed, on which the steam was again admitted to G, and the water in like manner expelled from it, while E, being again dashed with cold water, was refilling from below. Then the cold water was turned upon G, and thus alternate filling and forcing- went on, and a continuous stream of cold water kept flowing from the upper opening. The large boiler was replenished with water by shutting off the connection of the small boiler with the cold water pipe, M, which supplied it from above, on which the steam contained in the latter forced the water through the con- necting pipe, c, into the large boiler, and kept it running in a continuous stream until the surface of the water in the smaller boiler was depressed CHAP. III. SAYKHY'S ENGINK. 53 Its principal features were two large cylindrical vessels, which were alternately filled with steam from an adjoining boiler and with cold water from the well or mine out of which the water had to be raised. When either of the hollow vessels was filled with steam, and then suddenly cooled by a dash of cold water, a vacuum, was thereby created, and, the vessel being closed at the top and open at the bottom, the water was at once forced up into it from the well by the pressure of the atmosphere. The steam, being then let into the vessel from the top, pressed upon the surface of the water, and forced it out at the bottom by another pipe (its return into the well being prevented by a clack), and so up the perpendicular pipe which opened into the outer air. The second vessel being treated in the same manner, the same result followed ; and thus, by alternate filling and forcing, a continuous stream of water was poured out from the upper opening. The whole of the labour required to work the engine was capable of being performed by a single man, or even by a boy,. after very little teaching. Although Savery's plans and descriptions of the arrangement and working of his engines are clear and explicit, he does not give any information as to their proportions, beyond stating that an engine employed in raising a column of water 34 inches in diameter 60 feet high, requires a fireplace 20 inches deep. Speaking of their performances, he says, "I have known, in Corn- wall, a work with three lifts of about 18 feet each, lift and carry a 3i-inch bore, that cost 426-. a day (reckoning 24 a day) for labour, besides the wear and tear of en- gines, each pump having four men working eight hours, at I4d. a man, and the men obliged to rest at least a third part of that time." He pointed out that at least one-third part, of the then cost of raising water might below the opening of the connecting pipe, which was indicated by the noise of the clack, when it was refilled from the cold water pipe, M, as before. 54 ITS VARIOUS USES. CHAP. III. be saved by the adoption of his invention, which on many mines would amount to "a brave estate " in the course of a year. In estimating the power of his engine, Savery was accustomed to compare it with the quantity of work that horses could perform, and hence he introduced the term " horse power," which is still in use. Although, in the treatise referred to, Savery describes an engine with two furnaces, the drawing which he presented to the Royal Society showed only one ; and it appears that in another of his designs he showed only one cylindrical vessel instead of two. In order to exhibit the working of his engine on a larger scale than in the model, he proceeded to erect one in a potter's house at Lambeth, where, Switzer says, though it was a small engine, the water struck up the tiles and forced its way through the roof in a manner that surprised all the spec- tators. Switzer mentions other engines erected after Slavery's designs for the raising of water at Camden House and Sion House, which proved quite successful. The former, he says, was the plainest and best pro- portioned engine he had seen : it had only a single condensing vessel ; and " though but a small one in comparison with many others of the kind that are made for coal-works, it is sufficient for any reasonable family, and other uses required for it in watering middling gardens." ] Four receivers full of water, or equal to 52 gallons, were raised every minute, or 3110 gallons in the hour ; whilst, in the case of the larger engines with double receivers, 6240 gallons an hour might easily be raised. The cost of the smaller engine was about fifty pounds, and the consumption of coal about a bushel in the twenty-four hours, supposing it was kept con- stantly at work during that time. The uses to which Savery proposed to apply his 1 Switzer, Introduction to a General System of Hydrostaticks and Hydrsiu- licks,' 237. CHAP. III. FIRST TRIED AT HUEL VOR. 55 engine were various. One was to pump water into a reservoir, from which, by falling on a water-wheel, it might produce a continuous rotary motion. Another was to raise water into cisterns for the supply of gentlemen's houses, and for use in fountains and as an extinguisher in case of fire. A third was to raise water for the supply of towns, and a fourth to drain fens and marsh lands. But the most important, in the inventor's esti- mation, was its employment in clearing drowned mines and coal-pits of water. He showed how water might be raised from deep mines by using several engines, placed at different depths, one over the other. Thus by three lifts, each of 80 feet, water might be raised from a mine about 240 feet then considered a very great depth From Savery's own account, it is evident that several of his engines were erected in Cornwall ; and it is said that the first was tried at Huel Yor, or " The Great Work in Breage," a few miles from Helstone, then considered the richest tin mine in the countv. HDEL VOE, WITH REGAINS OF THE OLD WORKS. [ By R. P Leitrh.] The engine was found to be an improvement on the methods formerly employed for draining the mine, and sent the miners to considerably greater depths. But the great pressure of steam required to force up a high 56 ITS FAILURE IN STAFFORDSHIRE. CHAP. III. column of water was such as to strain to the utmost the imperfect boilers and receivers of those early days ; and the frequent explosions which attended its use eventually led to its discontinuance in favour of the superior engine of Newcomen, which was shortly after invented. Savery also endeavoured to introduce his engine in the coal-mining districts, but without success, and for the same reason. The demand for coal in connection with the iron manufacture having greatly increased in the county of Stafford, and the coal which lay nearest the surface having been for the most part " won," the mining interest became very desirous of obtaining some more efficient means of clearing the pits of water, in order to send the miners deeper into the ground. Wind- lass and buckets, wind-mills, horse-gins, rack-and-chain pumps, adits, and all sorts of contrivances had been tried, and the limit of their powers had been reached. The pits were fast becoming drowned out, and the ironmasters began to fear lest their manufacture should become lost through want of fuel. Under these circumstances they were ready to hail the invention of Captain Savery, which promised to relieve them of their difficulty. He was accordingly invited to erect one of his engines over a coal-mine at the Broadwaters, near' Wednesbury. The influx of water, however, proved too much for the engine ; the springs were so many and so strong, that all the means which Savery could employ failed to clear the mine of water. To increase the forcing power he increased the pressure of steam ; but neither boiler nor receiver could endure it, and the steam " tore the engine to pieces ; so that, after much time, labour, and expense, Mr. Savery gave up the undertaking, and the engine was laid aside as useless." l He was no more successful with the engine which he erected at York-buildings to pump water from the Dr. Wilkes in ' Shaw's History of Staffordshire,' i. 85, 119. CHAP. III. SAVERY'S LATER YEARS. Thames for the supply of the western parts of London. Bradley says that to increase its power he doubled every part, but " it was liable to so many disorders, if a single mistake happened in the working of it, that at length it was looked upon as a useless piece of work, and re- jected." 1 Savery's later engines thus lost him much of the credit which he had gained by those of an earlier and simpler construction. It became clear that their application was very limited. They involved much waste of fuel through the condensation of the hot steam pressing upon the surface of the cold water, previous to the expulsion of the latter from the vessel ; and eventually their use was confined to the pumping of water for fountains and the supply of gentlemen's houses, and in some cases to the raising of water for the purpose of working an overshot water-wheel. Various attempts were made to improve the engine by Bradley, by Papin, by Desaguliers, and others ; but no great advance was made in its construction and method of working until it was taken in hand by Newcomen and Galley, whose conjoint invention marks an important epoch in the history of the steam-engine. Not much is known of the later years of Savery's life. We find him a Captain of Military Engineers in 1702 ; 2 and in 1705, with the view of advancing knowledge in his special branch of military science, he gave to the world a translation, in folio, of Cohorn's celebrated work on fortification. The book was dedicated to Prince George of Denmark, to whom he was indebted, in the same year, for his appointment to the office of Treasurer of the Hospital for Sick and Wounded Seamen. Various letters and documents are still to be found in the Trans- 1 Bradley, ' Discourses on Earth and Water, &c.' Westminster, 1727. 2 We are informed by Quarter- master Conolly, 11. E., who has given much attention to the early history of the Royal Engineers, that the book of Warrants and Appointments, anno 1712, No. 172J, in the Tower Kecord- room, contains the following memo- randum in pencil on the inside cover : [Thomas] " Savery, Engineer officer, 1702-14." 58 HIS DEATH. CHAP. 111. port Office, Somerset House, addressed to him in that capacity. 1 In 1714 he was further indebted to Prince George for the appointment of Surveyor to the Water- works at Hampton Court ; hut he did not live to enjoy it, as he died in the course of the following year. He is said to have accumulated considerable property, which he bequeathed to his wife, together with all interest in his inventions. His will was executed on the day of his death, the 15th of May, 1715, and was proved four days after in the Prerogative Court of Can- terbury. He there described himself as "of the parish of Saint Margaret, at Westminster, Esquire." His widow herself died before all his effects were adminis- tered. There was a considerable amount of unclaimed stock, which the Savery family were prevented from claiming, as it had passed to the widow ; and it has since been transferred to the credit of the National Debt. 1 A pamphlet published in 1712, entitled 'An Impartial Inquiry into the Management of the War in Spain,' contains the following re- ference to Savery : " Sums allowed by Parliament for carrying on the .war in Spain . . . for the year 1710. To Thomas Savery, Esq., for Thomas Gale, surgeon, for caro of disabled soldiers, 306?. 6s. 4d" CHAI-. IV. THOMAS NKWroMEX. 59 CHAPTEK IV. THOMAS NEWOOMEN THE ATMOSPHERIC ENGINE. THE invention of the steam-engine had advanced thus far with halting steps. A new power had been dis- covered, but it was so dangerous and unmanageable that it was still doubtful whether it could be applied to any useful purpose. What was still wanting was an engine strong enough to resist the internal pressure of highly-heated steam, and so constructed as to work safely, continuously, and economically. Many attempts had been made to contrive such a machine ; but, as we have shown, the results were comparatively barren. Savery's small engine could raise water in moderate quantities to limited heights ; but the pumping of deep mines was beyond its power. It could force water to a height of about sixteen fathoms ; but as the depth of mines at that time was from fifty to a hundred yards, it was obviously incompetent for their drainage. It is true, Savery proposed to overcome the difficulty by erecting a series of engines, placed one over another in the shaft of the mine ; but the expense of their attendants, the great consumption of fuel, the cost of w^ear and tear, the constant danger of explosion, and the risk of the works being stopped by any one of the engines becoming temporarily deranged, rendered it clear that the use of liis engine for ordinary mining purposes was altogether impracticable. Such was the state of affairs when Thomas New- comen of Dartmouth took up the subject. Compara- tively little is known of the personal history of this ingenious man. Mechanical inventors excited little NEWCOMEN'S HOUSE, DAKTMOUTPI. CHAP. IV. NEWCOMEN'S HOUSE, DARTMOUTH. [By K. 1>. LeiicL ] 1 notice in those days ; they were looked upon as schemers, and oftener regarded as objects of suspicion than of respect. Thomas Newcomen was by trade an iron- monger and a blacksmith. The house in which he lived and worked stood, until quite recently, in Lower Street, Dartmouth. Like many of the ancient timber houses of that quaint old town, it was a building of singularly picturesque appearance. Lower Street is very narrow ; the houses in it are tall and irregular, with overhanging peaked gable-ends. A few years since, Newccmen's house began to show indications of decay ; the timber supports were fast failing ; and for safety's sake it was determined to pull it to the ground. 1 Newcomen's house occupies the centre of the above engraving the house with the peaked gable-end supported by timbers. CHAP. IV. STUDY OF STEAM POWER. (II The Newcomen family have long since become extinct in Dartmouth. They are said to have left the place long ago, and gone northward ; but we have been unable to trace them. The Newcomens appear to have occupied a respectable position in Dartmouth down to about the middle of the last century. Their burying- place was in the north-side chapel of the fine old parish church of the town, where several tablets are erected to their memory. Amongst others, there is one to William Newcomin, Attorney-at-Law, who died the 24th of August, 1745, aged 57, supposed to have been a brother, and another of the same name, who died in 1787, aged 65, supposed to have been a son of the ironmonger. Thomas Newcomen was a man of strong religious feelings, and from an early period of his life occupied his leisure in voluntary religious teaching. He belonged to the sect of Baptists ; and the place was standing until recently in which he regularly preached. When he afterwards went into distant parts of the country on engine business, he continued to devote his Sundays to the same work. How he first came to study the subject of steam is not known. Mr. Holdsworth says a story was current in Dartmouth in his younger days, and generally believed, that Newcomen conceived the idea of the motive power to be obtained from steam by watching the tea-kettle, the lid of which would fre- quently rise and fall when boiling ; and, reasoning upon this fact, he contrived, by filling a cylinder with steam, to raise the piston, and by immediately injecting some cold water, to create a vacuum, which allowed the weight of the atmosphere to press the piston down, and so give motion to a pump by means of a beam and rods. 1 It is probable that Newcomen was w T ell aware of the experiments of Savery on steam while the latter was living at Modbury, about fifteen miles distant. It 1 Pamphlet on 'Dartmouth: the advantages of its Harbour as a Station for Foreign Mail Packets, and a Short Notice of its Ancient and Present Condition.' By A. H. Holdsworth. London, 1841. 02 DR. HOOKE'S CAPITAL IDEA. CHAP. IV. will be remembered that Savery was greatly hampered in his earlier contrivances by the want of skilled workmen ; and as Newcomen had the reputation of being one of the cleverest blacksmiths in the county, it is supposed that he was employed to make some of the more intricate parts of Savery's engine. At all events, he could scarcely fail to hear from the men of his trade in the neighbourhood, what his speculative neighbour at Modbury was trying to compass in the invention of an engine for the purpose of raising water by fire. He was certainly occupied in studying the subject about the same time as Savery ; and Switzer says he was well informed that " Mr. Newcomen was as early in his in- vention as Mr. Savery was in his, only the latter being nearer the Court, had obtained the patent before the other knew it ; on which account Mr. Newcomen was glad to come in as a partner to it." 1 Another account 2 states that a draft of Savery's engine having come under Newcomen's notice, he proceeded to make a model of it, which he fixed in his garden, and soon found out its imperfections. He entered into a cor- respondence on the subject with the learned and inge- nious Dr. Hooke, then Secretary to the Eoyal Society, a man of remarkable ingenuity, and of great mechanical sagacity and insight. Newcomen had heard or read of Papin's proposed method of transmitting motive power to a distance by creating a vacuum under a piston in a cylinder, and transmitting the power through pipes to a second cylinder near the mine. Dr. Hooke dissuaded Newcomen from erecting a machine on this principle, as a waste of time and labour; but he added the pregnant suggestion, " could he (meaning Papin) make a speedy vacuum under your piston, your work were done." The capital idea thus cursorily thrown out of intro- ducing a moveable diaphragm between the active power 1 Switzer, ' Introduction to a System of Hydrostatics and Hydraulics,' p. 342. 2 Harris, ' Lexicon Technicum.' CHAP. IV. NEWCOMEN'S ENGINE. 03 and the vacuum set Newcomen at once upon the right track. Though the suggestion was merely that of a thoughtful bystander, it was a most important step in the history of the invention, for it contained the very principle of the atmospheric engine. Savery created his vacuum by the condensation of steam in a closed vessel, and Papin created his by exhausting the air in a cylinder fitted with a piston, by means of an air-pump. It remained for Newcomen to combine the two expe- dients to secure a sudden vacuum by the condensation of steam ; but, instead of employing Savery 's closed vessel, he made use of Papin's cylinder fitted with a piston. After long scheming and many failures, he at length succeeded, in the year 1705, 1 in contriving a model that worked with tolerable precision ; after which ho sought for an opportunity of exhibiting its powers in a full-sized working engine. It ought to be mentioned, that in the long course of experiments conducted by Newcomen with the object of finding out the new motive power, he was zealously assisted throughout by one John Galley, a glazier of Dartmouth, of whom nothing further is known than that he was Newcomen' s intimate friend, of the same religious persuasion, and afterwards his partner in the steam-engine enterprise. Newcomen's engine may be thus briefly described : The steam was generated in a separate boiler, as in Saveiy's engine, from which it was conveyed into a vertical cylinder underneath a piston fitting it closely, but moveable upwards and downwards through its whole length. The piston was fixed to a rod, which 1 It has been stated that New- comen took out a patent for his in- vention in 1705 ; but this is a mis- take, as no patent was ever taken out by Newcomen. It is supposed that Savery, having heard of his invention, gave him notice that he would re- gard his method of producing a speedy vacuum bv condensation, as an in- fringement of his patent, and that Newcomen accordingly agreed to give him an interest in the new engine during the term of Savery's patent. It will, however, be observed that the principle on which Newcomen's en- gine worked was entirely different from that of Savery. 64 ITS IMPROVEMENT. CHAI. IV. was attached by a joint or a chain to the end of a lever vibrating upon an axis, the other end being attached to a rod working a pump. When the piston in the cylinder was raised, steam was let into the vacated space through a tube fitted into the top of the boiler, and mounted with a stopcock. The pump-rod at the further end of the lever being thus depressed, cold water was applied to the sides of the cylinder, on which the steam within it was condensed, a vacuum was produced, and the external air, pressing upon the top of the piston, forced it down into the empty cylinder. The pump-rod was thereby raised ; and the operation of depressing and raising it being repeated, a power was thus produced which kept the pump continuously at work. Such, in a few words, was the construction and action of New- comen's first engine. It will thus be observed that this engine was essen- tially different in principle from that of Savery. While the latter raised water partly by the force of steam and partly by the pressure of the atmosphere, that of Newcomen worked entirely by the pressure of the atmosphere, steam being only used as the most expe- ditious method of producing a vacuum. The engine was, however, found to be very imperfect. It was ex- ceedingly slow in its motions ; much time was occupied in condensing the contained steam by throwing cold water on the outside of the cylinder ; and as the boiler was placed immediately under the cylinder, it was not easy to prevent the cold water from splashing it, and thus leading to a further loss of heat. To remedy these imperfections, Newcomen and Galley altered the ar- rangement ; and, instead of throwing cold water on the outside of the cylinder, they surrounded it with cold water. But this expedient was also found inconvenient, as the surrounding water shortly became warm, and ceased to condense until replaced by colder water ; but the colder it was the greater was the loss of heat by con- CHAP. IV. ANOTHER CHANGE. 65 densation, before the steam was enabled to fill the cylinder again on each ascent of the piston. Clumsy and comparatively ineffective though the engine was in this form, it was, nevertheless, found of some use in pumping water from mines. In 1711 Newcomen and Galley made proposals to the owners of a colliery at Grriff, in Warwickshire, to drain the water from their pits, which until then had been drained by the labour of horses ; but, the owners not believing in the practicability of the scheme, their offer was declined. In the following year, however, they succeeded in obtain- ing a contract with Mr. Back, for drawing the water from a mine belonging to him near Wolverhampton. The place where the engine was to be erected being near to Birmingham, the ironwork, the pump-valves, clacks, and buckets, were for the most part made there, and removed td the mine, where they were fitted together. Newcomen had great difficulty at first in making the engine go ; but after many laborious attempts he at last partially succeeded. It was found, however, that the new method of cooling the cylinder by surrounding it with cold water did not work so well in practice as had been expected. The vacuum pro- duced was very imperfect, and the action of the engine was both very slow and very irregular. While the engine was still in its trial state, a curious accident occurred which led to another change in the mode of condensation, and proved of essential importance in establishing Newcomen's engine as a practicable work- ing power. The accident was this : in order to keep the cylinder as free from air as possible, great pains were taken to prevent it passing down by the side of the piston, which was carefully wrapped with cloth or leather ; and, still further to keep the cylinder air-tight, a quantity of water was kept constantly laying on the upper side of the piston. At one of the early trials the inventors were surprised to see the engine make several F 66 POTTER'S CONTRIVANCE. CHAP. IV strokes in unusually quick succession ; and on searching for the cause, they found it to consist in a hole in the pis- ton, which had let the cold water in a jet into the inside of the cylinder, and thereby produced a rapid vacuum by the condensation of the contained steam. A new light suddenly broke upon Newcomen. The idea of condensing by injection of cold water directly into the cylinder, instead of applying it on the outside, at once occurred to him ; and he proceeded to embody the expe- dient which had thus been accidentally suggested, as part of his machine. The result was the addition of the in- jection-pipe, through which, when the piston was raised and the cylinder was full of steam, a jet of cold water was thrown in, and the steam being suddenly condensed, the piston was at once driven down by the pressure of the atmosphere. An accident of a different kind shortly after led to the improvement of Newcomen's engine in another respect. To keep it at work, one man was required to attend the fire, and another to turn alternately the two cocks, one admitting the steam into the cylinder, the other admitting the jet of cold water to condense it. The turning of these cocks was easy work, usually performed by a boy. It was, however, a very mono- tonous duty, though requiring constant attention. To escape the drudgery and obtain an interval for rest, or perhaps for play, a boy named Humphrey Potter, who turned the cocks, set himself to discover some method of evading his task. He must have been an ingenious boy, as is clear from the arrangement he contrived with this object. Observing the alternate ascent and descent of the beam above his head, he bethought him of apply- ing the movement to the alternate raising and lowering of the levers which governed the cocks. The result was the contrivance of what he called the scocjgan, 1 consisting 1 Scogging is a north country word, meaning skulking one's work, from which probably the boy gave the contrivance its name. Potter, how- ever, grew up to be a highly-skilled workman. He went abroad about CHAP. IV. BEIGHfON'S IMPROVEMENT. 67 of a catch worked by strings from the beam of the engine. This arrangement, when tried, was found to answer the purpose intended. The action of the engine was thus made automatic ; and the arrangement, though rude, not only enabled Potter to enjoy his play, but it had the effect of improving the working power of the engine itself; the number of strokes which it made being increased from six or eight to fifteen or sixteen in the minute. This invention was afterwards greatly im- proved by Mr. Henry Beighton, of New- castle -on- Tyne, who added the plug -rod and hand -gear. He did away with the catches and strings of the boy Potter's rude apparatus, and substi- tuted a rod suspended from the beam, which alternately opened and shut the tappets attached to the steam and injection cocks. Thus, step by step, Newcomen's engine grew in power and efficiency, and became more and more complete as NEWCOMEN'S ENGINE.l the year 1720, and erected an engine at a mine in Hungary, described by Leupold in his 'Theatrum Machina- rum,' with many encomiums upon Potter, who was considered the in- ventor. 1 The illustration shows the several parts of Newcomen's atmospheric en- gine, a is the boiler ; 6, the piston moving up and down ; c, the cylinder ; d, a pipe proceeding from the top of the boiler, and inserted into the bottom of the cylinder, having a cock, e, to interrupt the flow of steam at pleasure ; /, cold-water cistern, from which the cold water is conveyed by the pipe g, called the injection -pipe, and thrown in a jet into the cylinder, b, on turning the injection-cock, h; the snifting- valve, i, enables the air to escape from the cylinder, while the siphon-pipe,/, enables the condensed steam to flow from the same cavity in the form of water ; k, the main lever beam ; I, the counterpoise or weight hung on the balance-beam, or on w, the pump-rod which works the pump, n. F 2 68 THE AUSTHORPE ENGINE. CHAP. IV a self-acting machine. It will be observed that, like all other inventions, it was not the product of any one man's ingenuity, but of many. One contributed one improve- ment, and another another. The essential features of the atmospheric engine were not new. The piston and cylinder had been known as long ago as the time of Hero. The expansive force of steam and the creation of a vacuum by its condensation had been known to the Marquis of Worcester, Savery, Papin, and many more. Newcomen merely combined in his machine the result of their varied experience, and, assisted by the persons who worked with him, down to the engine-boy Potter, he advanced the invention several important stages ; so that the steam-engine was no longer a toy or a scientific curiosity, but had become a powerful machine capable of doing useful work. The comparative success which attended the working of Newcomen's first engine at the colliery near Wolver- hampton, shortly induced other owners of coal-mines to adopt it. There were great complaints in the north, of the deeper mines having become unworkable. All the ordinary means of pumping them clear of water had failed. In their emergency, the colliery-owners called Newcomen and Galley to their aid. They were invited down to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the neighbour- hood of which town they erected their second and third engines. They were next summoned to Leeds, and erected their fourth engine at Austhorpe, in 1714. It was the sight of this engine at work which first induced Smeaton, when a boy, to turn his attention to mechanics, and eventually led him to study the atmospheric-engine, with a view to its improvement. The cylinder of the engine erected at Austhorpe, like those which had pre- ceded it, was about 23 inches in diameter, and made about fifteen strokes a minute. The pumps, which were in two lifts, and of 9 inches bore, drew the water from a depth of 37 yards. The patentees had 250/. a year for CHAP. IV. ENGINES IN CORNWALL. 69 working and keeping the engine in order. Galley super- intended its erection, and afterwards its working ; but he did not long survive its completion, as he died at Austhorpe in 1717. The next engines were erected by Newcomen in Cornwall, where there was as great a demand for in- creased pumping-power as in any of the collieries of the north. The first of Newcomen's construction in Corn- wall was erected in 1720, at the Wheal Fortune tin mine, in the parish of Ludgvan, a few miles north-east of Penzance. The mine was conducted by Mr. William Lemon, the founder of the fortunes of the well-known Cornish family. He was born in a humble station in life, from which he honourably raised himself by his great industry, ability, and energy. He began his career as a mining-boy ; was at an early age appointed one of the managers of a tin-smelting house at Chiandower, near Penzance ; and after the experience gained by him in that capacity he engaged in the working of the Wheal Fortune mine. With the help of Newcomen's engine,, the enterprise proved completely successful; and after realising a considerable sum he removed to Truro, and began working the great Glwennap mines on such a scale as had never before been known in Cornwall. 1 The Wheal Fortune engine was on a larger scale than any that had yet been erected, the cylinder being 47 inches in diameter, making about fifteen strokes a minute. It drew about a hogshead of water at each stroke, from a pump 30 fathoms deep, through pit-barrels 1 Mr. Lemon eventually became the principal merchant and tin-smelter of Cornwall. Mr. Da vies Gilbert says : " The energies of his mind were not limited to these undertakings, great though they were. He culti- vated a taste for literature, and, which is extremely unusual, acquired, amidst business, and at a middle age, the power of reading the classic authors in their original language. . . . He was distinguished in his district as " the great Mr. Lemon," but such were the impressions of his abilities, his exertions, and general merit, that a progress so rapid and unexampled does not appear to have excited envy, or any of those bad passions which usually alloy the enjoyment of pros- perity." ' History of Cornwall,' ii. 84. WHEAL FORTUNE. CHAP. IV. 15 inches in diameter, and its performances were on the whole regarded as very extraordinary. The prin- cipal objection to its use consisted in the very large quantity of coal that it consumed and the heavy cost of maintaining it in working order. There was a great waste, especially in boilers, the making of which was then ill understood. Smeaton relates that in the course of four years' working of the first Austhorpe engine, not fewer than four boilers were burnt out. The Wheal Fortune engine, however, answered its purpose. It kept down the water sufficiently to enable Mr. Lemon to draw up his tin, and on leaving the mine, he took with him . -=---- --.. ..--.-* --JF-. -.,-_, ^_. ... . 1ORTDNE [By R. F Lriich.] to Truro a clear sum of ten thousand pounds. The engine-house is now in ruins, and presents a highly picturesque appearance, as seen from the heights of Trewal, reminding one of a Border Peel rather than of a mining engine-house. Another of Newcomen's engines was erected about the same time at the Wheal Rose mine, a few miles north of Bedruth. The engineer appointed to superin- tend its erection was Joseph Hornblower, who came from Staffordshire for the purpose about the year 1725. Mr. CHAP. IV. POLGOOTH. Cyrus Redding, one of Horn- blower's descendants, says, how he became in any way connected with Newcomeri must have arisen from the latter being at Bromsgrove, when he visited Mr. Potter, who got him to build one of his newly - invented en- gines at Wolverhampton in POI.GOOTH. 1712." 1 Another engine was afterwards erected by Horn- blower at Whenl Busy, or Chacewater, and a third at Polgooth all rich and well-known mines in Cornwall. Though the use of Newcomen's engine rapidly ex- tended, nothing is known of the man himself during this time. All over the mining districts his name was 1 " It may be interesting to know that it required three hands to work Newcomen's first engines. I have heard it said that when the engine was stopped, and again set at work, the words were passed " Snift Beniy ! " "Blow the fire, Pomery!" "Work away, Joe ! " The last let in the con- densing water. Lifting the condensing clack was called "snifting," because on opening UK; valve, the air rushing through it made a noise like a man snifting. The fire was increased through artificial means by another hand, and all being ready, the ma- chine was set in motion by a third." Cyrus Eedding, 'Yesterday and To- day.' London, 1863. The " snifting clack" was a valve in the cylinder opening outwards, which permitted the escape of air or permanently elastic fluid, which could not be con- densed by cold and run off through the eduction- pipe. 72 JONATHAN HULLS. CHAP. IV. identified with the means employed for pumping the mines clear of water, and thereby enabling an important branch of the national industry to be carried on ; but of Newcomen's personal history, beyond what has been stated above, we can gather nothing. It is not known when or where he died, whether rich or poor. The probability is that, being a person of a modest and retiring disposi- tion, without business energy, and having secured no protection for his invention, it was appropriated and made use of by others, without any profit to him, whilst he quietly subsided into private life. It is supposed that he died at Dartmouth about the middle of last century ; but no stone marks the place where he was laid. The only memorial of Newcomen to be found at his native place is the little steam-boat called by his name, which plies between Totness and -Dartmouth. During Newcomen's lifetime the proposal was revived of applying the steam-engine to the propelling of ships. Since Papin's time nothing had been accomplished in this direction. Now that the steam-engine was actively employed in pumping mines, it was natural enough that the idea should be revived of applying it to navigation. The most enthusiastic advocate of the new power was Jonathan Hulls, a native of Campden, in Gloucestershire, where he was born in 1699. He married a wife in 1719, before he was out of his teens ; an act of indiscretion in which, however, he had the example of one no less distinguished than Shakspeare. Living as he did in an inland country place, it seems remarkable that he should have directed his attention to the subject of steam-navi- gation. We find him making experiments with models of boats on the river Avon, at Evesham, and in course of time he duly matured his ideas and embodied them in his patent of 1736. 1 He proposed to place a New- comen engine on board a tow-boat, and by its means to 1 In 1737 he published a Treatise on the subject entitled, ' A descrip- tion and Draught of a new-invented Machine for carrying Vessels or Ships out of or into any Harbour, Port, or River, against Wind or Tide, and in u Calm,' by Jonathan Hulls. CHAP. IV. HULLS'S STEAM-BOAT. 73 work a paddle- wheel placed at the stern. His method of converting the rectilinear motion of his piston into a rotary one was ingenious, but, like Savery, he missed the crank on the paddle-shaft, and many years passed before this simple expedient was adopted. 1 " The work to be done by this machine," said he, " will be upon particular occasions, when all other means yet found out are wholly insufficient. How often does a merchant wish that his ship were on the ocean, when, if she were there, the wind would serve tolerably well to carry him on his intended voyage, but does not serve at the same time to carry him out of the river he happens to be in, which a few hours' work of the machine would do. Besides, I know engines that are driven by the same power as this is, where materials for the purpose are dearer than in any navigable river in England; therefore experience demonstrates that the expense will be but a trifle to the value of the work performed by those sort of machines, which any person that knows the nature of those things may easily calculate." His treatise was illustrated by a drawing, of which the fol- lowing is a copy on a reduced scale. JONATHAN HDLLS'S STEAM-BOAT. 1 In di'scribing his mode of obtain- ing rotary motion by ratchet wheels, a wei ght, and ropes, Hulls states that he uses two axes, one behind the other, each of which is essential to the object ; and he then adds, that 74 UNSATISFACTORY TRIAL. CIIAI-. IV- The inventor, aware of the novelty of his proposal and of the readiness of the public to ridicule novelties, deprecated rash censure of his project, and only claimed for it a fair and unprejudiced trial. In order to exhibit the powers of his steam-boat, he constructed an engine in 1737, and had it fixed on board a little vessel for trial in the river Avon at Evesham. The trial was not satis- factory, and the engine was taken on shore again. " A failure ! A failure ! " cried the spectators, who stigma- tised the projector as an ass. The prophet had, indeed, no honour whatever in his own country. Long after his steam-boat experiment had been forgotten, these lines about him were remembered : " Jonathan Hull, With his paper skull, 'Fried hard to make a machine That should go against wind and tide : But he, like an ass, Couldn't bring it to pass, So at last was ashamed to be seen." l Not much more is known of Jonathan Hulls' s history. In 1754 he published, in conjunction with two others, a treatise on ' The Art of Measuring made Easy, by the help of a new Sliding-rule ;' and shortly after ' The Malt- maker's Instructor ;' but nothing more was heard of Jonathan Hulls's steam-boat. We return to the Newcomen engine, which became increasingly employed as a pumping power in all the mining districts. Borlase, writing in 1758, says that " fire-engines " were then in regular use at North Downs when his tow-boat is to be used in shallow rivers, the machine works by two cranks fixed to the hindermost axis ; to which cranks are fixed two shafts (or poles) of proper length to rotary motion from the axis on which they are placed, and do not, as has been erroneously stated, impart that motion to it. Bennet Woodcroft, ' Sketch of the Origin and Progress reach the bottom of the river, and of Steam Navigation.' London, 1848. which move alternately forward from l There are several versions of the the motion of the wheels ~by which the same satire current to this day in the vessel is carried on : so that the j villages of Campden and Hanging cranks, as described by Hulls, receive ! Aston. & I'HAi-. IV. OBJECTIONS TO NEWCOMEN'S ENGINE. 75 near Kedruth, Pitt-louarn, Polgooth, Wheal-rith, Pool, Dolcoath, Her land, and many other places. 1 Indeed there was scarcely a tin or copper mine of any import- ance in Cornwall that had not one or more of New- come n's engines at work. They were also in general use in Staffordshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Northumber- land. In the latter counties, where they were principally used for pumping water out of the coal mines, fuel was ready at hand, cheap and abundant. But in Cornwall it was otherwise. The coal had to be brought thither from a great distance, partly by sea and partly by land, and the cost of carriage was very heavy. It, therefore, became an object of much importance to reduce the con- sumption of fuel, to prevent the profits of the mines being absorbed by the heavy cost of working the pumps. This, indeed, was the great objection to Newcomen's engine, especially in Cornwall. The consumption of fuel at some mines was so enormous, that it was doubt- ful whether the cost of steam did not exceed that of an equal amount of horse power, and it became more and more difficult to realise even a bare margin of profit. The two engines at Wheal Rose and Wheal Busy, near Chace water, of 66 and 72 inches diameter, consumed each about thirteen tons of coal daily. To relieve the mining interest, in some measure, from this charge, government allowed a drawback of five shillings a chaldron on coal ; but in some cases this was found insufficient, and it began to be complained that the consumption of coal was so great, that the mines were barely paying. Invention, however, was constantly at work, and new improvements were from time to time introduced, with the object of economising fuel and increasing the efficiency of the engine. Among the ingenious men who devoted themselves to this work, were Payne, Borlase, 'Natural History of Cornwall,' p. 175. 76 DARTMOUTH. CHAP. IV. Brindley, and Smeaton. Of these, the last especially distinguished himself by his improvements of the New- comen engine, which he may be said to have carried to the highest perfection of which it was capable. His famous Chacewater engine was the finest and most powerful work of the kind which had until then been constructed, and it remained unrivalled until super- seded by the invention of Watt, to whose life and labours we now proceed to direct the attention of the reader. DARTMOUTH, FROM THE HARBOUR. [By R. P. Leitch ] JAMES WATT: HIS BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE: MECHANICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER, SURVEYOR, AND INVENTOR. GREENOCK AND THE CLYDE, 1865 [By R. P. Leitch. after a sketch by J S Smiles ] GREENOCK HARBOUR, V, [Fac-simile of an old print..] CHAPTEE V. JAMES WATT LINEAGE AND BIRTHPLACE BOYHOOD AND APPRENTICESHIP. JAMES WATT was born at G-reenock, on the Clyde, on the 19th of January, 1736. His parents were of the middle class, industrious, intelligent, and religious people, with a character for probity which had de- scended to them from their " forbears," and was che- rished as their proudest inheritance. James Watt was thus emphatically well-born. His father and grand- father both held local offices of trust, and honourable mention is made of them in the records of Greenock. His grandfather, Thomas Watt, was the first of the family who lived in that neighbourhood. He had mi- grated thither from the county of Aberdeen, where his father was a small farmer in the time of Charles I. It is supposed that he took part with the Covenanters in resisting the Marquis of Montrose in his sudden descent upon Aberdeen at the head of his wild Highlanders in 80 WATT'S GRANDFATHER CHAP. V. the autumn of 1644 ; and that the Covenanting farmer was killed in one of the battles that ensued. The dis- trict was ravaged by the victorious Royalists ; the crops were destroyed, cattle lifted, dwellings burnt ; and many of the inhabitants fled southwards for refuge in more peaceful districts. Hence Thomas Watt's migration to Cartsdyke, where we find him settled as a teacher of navigation and mathematics, about the middle of the seventeenth century. Cartsdyke, or Crawfordsdyke, was then a village situated a little to the east of G-reenock, though now forming part of it. Crawfordsburn House, still standing, was the residence of the lord of the manor, and is a good specimen of the old-fashioned country mansion. It is C-RAWFOKDSBCT.RN HOUSE, NEAB, GKEENOCJK. beautifully situated on the high ground overlooking the Clyde. In former times a green slope stretched down from it towards the beach, along which lay the village, consisting of about a hundred cottages, mostly thatched. Cartsdyke was, however, in early times, a place of greater importance than G-reenock. It had a pier, which Greenock as yet had not ; and from this pier the first Clyde ship which crossed the Atlantic sailed for Darien in 1697. What little enterprise existed in the neigh- CHAP. V. APPOINTED AN ELDER. 81 bourhood was identified with Cartsdyke rather than with Greenock ; and hence Thomas Watt's preference for it, in setting up there as a teacher. He, too, like his sire, seems to have been a sturdy Covenanter ; for we find him, in 1683, refusing to take the test in favour of prelacy, and he was consequently proclaimed to be a "disorderly schoolmaster officiating contrary to law." He nevertheless continued the teaching of the mathe- matics, in which he seems to have prospered, as, besides marrying a wife, he shortly after bought the house and garden which he occupied, and subsequently added to his possessions a tenement in the neighbouring village of Greenock. From the nature of his calling, it is obvious that he must have been a thoughtful and intelligent person ; l and that he was a man of excellent character is clear from the confidence he inspired in those who had the best opportunities of knowing him. When William and Mary were confirmed in their occupancy of the British throne, shortly after the Revolution of 1688, one of the first acts of Mr. Crawford, of Crawfordsburn, the feudal superior, was to appoint Thomas Watt baillie of the barony a position of local importance, involving the direction of public affairs within the limits of his jurisdiction. A few years later, the Kirk Session of Greenock, having found him " blameless in life and conversation," appointed him an Elder of the parish, when it became part of his duty to overlook not only the religious observances, but the manners and morals, of the little community. Kirk Sessions did not then confine them- selves to ecclesiastical affairs, but assumed the function of magistrates, and almost exercised the powers of an 1 Among the few household articles belonging to him which descended to his son, and afterwards to his grand- one of Sir Isaac Newton, and the other of John Napier, the inventor of Logarithms. son the engineer, were two portraits, G 82 GRAMMAR SCHOOL. CHAP. V. inquisition. One of their most important duties was to provide for the education of the rising generation, in pursuance of the injunction of John Knox, "that no father, of what estate or condition that ever he may be, use his children at his own fantasie, especially in their youthhead ; but all must be compelled to bring up their children in learning and virtue," words which lie at the root of much of Scotland's mental culture, as well as, probably, of its material prosperity. In 1696 the Act was passed by the Scotch Parliament which is usually regarded as the charter of the Scotch parish- school system ; and in the following year the Kirk Ses- sion of Greenock proceeded to make provision for the establishment of their parish school, which continued until the Town Council superseded it by the Grammar School, at which James Watt, the future engineer, re- ceived the best part of his school education. After holding the offices of Presbytery Elder and Kirk Treasurer for some time, Thomas Watt craved leave to retire into private life. He was seventy years old, and felt infirmities growing upon him. The plea was acknowledged, and the request granted ; and on his retirement from office the Kirk Session recorded on their minutes that Thomas Watt had been found " dili- gent and faithful in the management of his trust." He died at the age of 92, and was buried in the old kirk- yard of Greenock, where his tombstone is still to be seen. He is there described as " Professor of Mathe- matics in Crawfordsdyk." Not far from his grave lie, "mouldering in silent dust," the remains of Burns' s Highland Mary, who died while on a visit to a relative at Greenock. Two sons survived the " Professor," John and James, who were well settled in life when the old man died. John, the elder, was trained by his father in mathe- matics and surveying ; for some time officiating under him as clerk to the barony of Cartsdyke, and afterwards CHAP. V. WATT'S FATHER. 83 removing to Glasgow, where he began business on his own account. In the year that his father died (1734) he made the first survey of the river Clyde ; but he died shortly after, and the map was published by his nephew. James, the engineer's father, was bound ap- prentice to a carpenter and shipwright at Cartsdyke, and on the expiry of his term he set up business for himself in the same line at Greenock. About the beginning of the last century, Greenock, now one of the busiest ports in the kingdom, was but a little fishing-village, consisting of a single row of thatched cottages lying parallel with the sandy beach of the Frith of Clyde, in what was then known as " Sir John's little bay." Sir John Shaw was the superior, or lord of the manor, his mansion standing on a height overlooking the tow^n, 1 and commanding an extensive view of the Clyde, from Roseneath to Dumbarton. Across the water lay the beautiful north shore, broken by the long narrow sea-lochs running far away among the Argyleshire hills. Their waters, now plashed by the paddles of innumerable Clyde steamers, were then only disturbed by the passing of an occasional Highland coble ; whilst their shores, now fringed with villages, villas, and mansions, were as lonely as Glencoe. Greenock was in a great measure isolated from other towns by impassable roads. The only route to Gree- nock, on the west, lay along the beach, and when strong winds raised a high tide the communication was en- tirely cut off. Greenock was separated from Cartsdyke, on the east, by the Ling Burn, which was crossed by a plank, afterwards supplanted by an old ship's rudder ; and it was about the middle of the century before a The mansion house of the Shaws is now principally occupied as ma- principally ffices. Tin norial offices. The fine old garden and pleasure-grounds have been pre- sented by Sir John Shaw to the for ever. It is now called " The Watt Park," and a more beautiful spot (bating the smoke of the busy town below) is scarcely to be found in Britain. people of Greenock as a public park I G 2 84 P1UM1TIVE STATE OF GREENOCK. CHAP. V. bridge was built across the stream. The other provi- sions of the place for public service and convenience were of a like rude and primitive character : thus, GTreenock could not boast of a public clock until about the middle of the last century, when a town clock was mounted in a wooden steeple. Till then, a dial, still standing, marked the hours when the sun shone, and a bell hung upon a triangle summoned the people to kirk and market. Besides the kirk, however, there was another public building the Black Hole, or prison, which, like the other houses in the place, was covered with thatch. Before the prison were placed the "jougs," as a terror to evil-doers, as well as a few old pieces of cannon, taken from one of the ships of the Spanish Armada wrecked near Pencores Castle. The Black Hole, the jougs, and the cannon were thought necessary precautions against the occasional visits to which the place was subject from the hungry Highlandmen on the opposite shores of the firth. 1 The prosperity of G-reenock dates from the year 1707, shortly after the Union with England. The British Parliament then granted what the Scottish Parliament had refused the privilege of constructing a harbour. Before that time there was no pier, only a rude landing-stage which Sir John Shaw had provided for his barge in the " Little Bay ;" but the fishermen's 1 In 1715 the Greenock and Carts- dyke men kept strict watch and ward for eighty days against a threat- ened visit of Rob Hoy and his caterans. The conduct of these unruly neigh- bours continued to cause apprehen- sions amongst the townspeople until a much later period, especially during fair time, then the great event of the year. The fair was the occasion of the annual gathering of the people from the neighbouring country to buy and to sell. Highlandmen came from the opposite shores and from the lochs down the Clyde, men caring little for Lowland law, but duly im- pressed by a display of force. Their boats were drawn up on the beach with their prows to the High Street, the north side of which at that time lay open to the sea. The Highland folk lived and slept on board, each boat having a plank or gangway between it and the shore. On the first day of the fair Sir John Shaw, the feudal superior, convened the local dignitaries, the deacons and the trades, and after drinking the King's health and throwing the glasses amongst the populace, they formed in procession and perambulated the town. CHAP. Y. GREENOCK'S IMPROVEMENT. 85 boats and other small craft frequenting the place were beached in the usual primitive way. Yessels of burden requiring to load or unload their cargoes did so at the pier at Cartsdyke above referred to. When the neces- sary powers were granted to make a harbour at G-ree- nock, the inhabitants proceeded to tax themselves to provide the necessary means, paying a shilling and fourpence for every sack of malt brewed into ale within the barony ; ale, not whisky, being then the popular drink of Scotland. The devotion of the townspeople to their " yill caups " must have been considerable, as the harbour was finished and opened in 1710, and in thirty years the principal debt was paid off. In course of time Grreenock was made a custom- house port, and its trade rapidly increased. The first solitary vessel, freighted with Glasgow merchandise for the American colonies, sailed from the new har- bour in 1719 ; and now the custom-house dues col- lected there amount to more than six times the whole revenue of Scotland in the time of the Stuarts. Here James Watt, son of the Cartsdyke teacher of mathematics, and father of the engineer, began business about the year 1730. His occupation was of a very miscellaneous character, and embraced most branches of carpentry. He was a house wright, shipwright, car- penter, and undertaker, as well as a builder and con- tractor, having in the course of his life enlarged the western front of Sir John Shaw's mansion-house, and designed and built the Town-hall and Council-chambers. To these various occupations Mr. Watt added that of a general merchant. He supplied the ships frequenting the port with articles of merchandise as well as with ships ? stores. He also engaged in foreign mercantile ventures, and held shares in several ships. Three months after the death of his father, to a share of whose property he succeeded, Mr. Watt purchased a house on the Mid-Quay Head, at the lower end of 86 WATT'S MOTHFJI. CHAP. V. William-street, with a piece of ground belonging to it, which extended to the beach. On this piece of ground stood Watt's carpenter's shop, in which a great deal of miscellaneous work was executed household furniture and ships' fittings, chairs, tables, coffins, and capstans, as well as the ordinary sorts of joinery ; while from his stores he was ready to supply blocks, pumps, gun-car- riages, dead-eyes, and other articles used on board ship. He was ready to " touch " ships' compasses, and to adjust and repair nautical instruments generally ; while on an emergency he could make a crane for harbour uses the first in G-reenock having been executed in his shops, and erected on the pier for the convenience of the Vir- ginia tobacco-ships beginning to frequent the harbour. These multifarious occupations were necessitated by the smallness of the place, the business of a single calling being as yet too limited to yield a competency to an enterprising man, or sufficient scope for his powers. Being a person of substance and respectability, Mr. Watt was elected by his fellow townsmen to fill various public offices, such as trustee for the burgh fund, town councillor, treasurer, and afterwards baillie or chief magistrate. He also added to his comfort as well as to his dignity by marrying a wife of character, Agnes Muirhead, a woman esteemed by her neighbours for her graces of person, as well as of mind and heart. She is said to have been not less distinguished for her sound sense and good manners than for her cheerful temper and excellent housewifery. 1 Such was the mother of 1 Some of her neighbours thought her stately and unbending, and that she affected a superior style of living. In the ' Memorials of Watt,' by the late George Williamson, Esq., Gree- nock, are to be found many curious and interesting details as to the Watt family; collected partly from tradi- tion and partly from local records. Of Mrs. Watt's " superior style of living," compared with the custom of the period, the following anecdote is given : " One of the author's in- formants on such points, a venerable lady in her eightieth year, was wont to spwik of the worthy baillie's wife with much characteristic interest and animation. As illustrative of the CHAP. V. WATT'S BIRTHPLACE. 87 James Watt. Three of her five children died in child- hood ; John, her fifth son, perished at sea when on a voyage to America in one of his father's ships; and James, the fourth of the family, remained her only sur- viving child. He was born in the house which stood at the corner between the present Dairy m pie-street and William-street, since taken down and replaced by the building- now known as the " James Watt Tavern." JAME3 WATT TAVERN, GKKEJMUCK [By R P. Leitch] From his earliest years James Watt was of an ex- tremely fragile constitution, requiring the tenderest nurture. Struggling as it were for life all through his childhood, he acquired an almost feminine delicacy and sensitiveness, which made him shrink from the rough play of robust children ; and hence, during his early years, his education was entirely conducted at home. His mother taught him reading, and his father a little writing and arithmetic. His mother, to amuse him, internal economy of the family, the old lady related an occasion on which she had spent an evening, when a girl, at Mrs. Watt's house, and re- membered expressing with much naivetl to her mother on returning home, her childish surprise that * Mrs. Watt had two lighted candles on the table.' Among these and other reminiscences of her youth, our venerable informant described James Watt's mother, in her expressive Doric, as 'a braw, braw woman none now to be seen like her.' " p. 128-9. 88 WATT'S EAELY YEARS. CHAP. V. encouraged him to draw with a pencil on paper, or with chalk upon the floor ; and his father supplied him with a few tools from the carpenter's shop, which he soon learnt to handle with expertness. In such occupations he found the best resource against ennui. He took his toys to pieces, and out of the parts ingeniously con- structed new ones. The mechanical dexterity which he thus cultivated even as a child was probably in a great measure the foundation upon which he built the specu- lations to which he owes his glory ; nor, without his early mechanical training, is there reason to believe that he would afterwards become the improver and almost the creator of the steam-engine. The invalid thus passed his early years almost entirely in the society of his mother, whose gentle nature, strong good sense, and unobtrusive piety, exercised a most beneficial influence in the formation of his character. Nor were his parents without their reward ; for as the boy grew up to manhood he repaid their anxious care with obedience, respect, and affection. Mrs. Watt was in after life accustomed to say that the loss of her only daughter, which she had felt so severely, had been fully made up to her by the dutiful attentions of her son. Spending his life indoors, without exercise, his nervous system became preternaturally sensitive. He was subject to violent sick headaches, which confined him to his room for weeks together ; and it almost seems a marvel that, under such circumstances, he should have survived his boyhood. It is in such cases as his that indications of precocity are generally observed ; and parents would be less gratified at their display if they knew that they are usually the symptoms of disease. Several remark- able instances of this precocity are related of Watt. On one occasion, when he was bending over the hearth with a piece of chalk in his hand, a friend of his father said, " You ought to send that boy to a public school, and not allow him to trifle away his time at home." " Look how CHAP. V. REPROVED BY HIS AUNT. 89 my child is occupied," said the father, " before you con- demn him." Though only six years old, it is said he was found trying to solve a problem in geometry. On another occasion he was reproved by Mrs. Muir- head, his aunt, for his indolence at the tea-table. " James Watt," said the worthy lady, " I never saw such an idle boy as you are : take a book or employ yourself usefully ; for the last hour you have not spoken one word, but taken off the lid of that kettle and put it on again, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon over the steam, watching how it rises from the spout, catching and counting the drops it falls into." In the view of M. Arago, the little James before the tea-kettle becomes a the great engineer, preparing the discoveries which were soon to immortalize him." In our opinion the judgment of the aunt was the truest. There is no reason to suppose that the mind of the boy was occupied with philosophical theories on the condensation of steam, which he compassed with so much difficulty in his maturer years. This is more probably an, afterthought borrowed from his subsequent discoveries. Nothing is commoner than for children to be amused with such phenomena, in the same way that they will form air- bubbles in a cup of tea, and watch them sailing over the surface till they burst. The probability is that little James was quite as idle as he seemed. When he was at length sent to Mr. M' Adam's com- mercial school, the change caused him many trials and much suffering. He found himself completely out of place in the midst of the boisterous juvenile republic. Against the tyranny of the elders he was helpless ; their wild play was most distasteful to him ; he could not join in their sports, nor roam with them along the beach, nor shy stones into the water, nor take part in their hazardous exploits in the harbour. Accordingly they showered upon him contemptuous epithets ; and the school being composed of both sexes, the girls joined in 90 VISIT TO GLASGOW. ('HAP. V. the laugh. He shone as little in the class as in the playground. He did not possess that parrot power of learning and confidence in self necessary to achieve distinction at school ; and he was even considered dull and backward for his age. 1 His want of progress may, however, in some measure be accounted for by his almost continual ailments, which sometimes kept him for weeks together at home. It was not until he reached the age of about thirteen or fourteen, when he was put into the mathematical class, that his powers appeared to develop themselves, and from that time he made rapid progress. When not quite fourteen, he was taken by his mother for change of air to Glasgow, then a quiet place without a single long chimney, somewhat resembling a rural market-town of the present day. He was left in charge of a relation, and his mother returned to Greenock. But he proved so wakeful during the visit, and so disposed to indulge in that habit of storytelling, which even Sir Walter Scott could afterwards admire in him, that Mr. Watt was very soon written to by his friend, and en- treated to return to Glasgow and take home, his son. " I cannot stand the excitement he keeps me in," said Mrs. Campbell ; "I am worn out for want of sleep. Every evening, before retiring to rest, he contrives to engage me in conversation, then begins some striking tale, and whether humorous or pathetic, the interest is so overpowering, that the family all listen to him with breathless attention, and hour after hour strikes un- 1 The truth in regard to young Watt's first years in the public school is, that, owing doubtless to infirm health, to the suffering and depres- sion which affected his whole powers, he was prevented for a considerable time displaying even a very ordi- nary and moderate aptitude for the common routine of school lessons ; and during those years he was re- garded by his schoolmasters as slow and inapt. Although to some minds facts of such a nature may be con- ceived to mar the romance of a great man's history, yet, seeing they rest on authenticity which cannot be im- pugned, there appears no reasonable ground on which it may be thought that they ought to be passed over as if they had not existed, or were altogether unfounded. Williamson's ' Memorials of Watt,' p. 130. CHAP. V. BOYISH INGENUITY. 01 heeded." He was taken back to Greenock accordingly, and, when well enough, was sent to the Grammar School of the town, then kept by Mr. Eobert Arrol. Under him, Watt made fair progress in the rudiments of Latin and Greek ; but he was still more successful in the study of mathematics, which he prosecuted under Mr. John Marr. It was only when he entered on this branch of learning that he discovered his strength, and he very soon took the lead in his class. When at home the boy continued to spend much of his time in drawing, or in cutting or carving with his penknife, or in watching the carpenters at work in his father's shop, sometimes trying his own hand at making little articles with the tools which lay about. In this he displayed a degree of dexterity which seemed so remarkable that the journeymen were accustomed to say of him that " little Jamie had gotten a fortune at his fingers' ends." Even when he had grown old he would recall to mind the pleasure as well as the profit which he had derived from working in his shirt -sleeves in his father's shop. He was, in fact, educating him- self in the most effectual manner in his own way ; learning to use his hands dexterously; familiarising himself with the art of handling tools ; and acquiring a degree of expertness in working with them in wood and metal, which eventually proved of the greatest value to him. At the same time he was training himself in habits of application, industry, and inven- tion. Most of his spare time was thus devoted to me- chanical adaptations of his own contrivance. A small forge was erected for him, and a bench fitted up for his special use ; and there he constructed many ingenious little objects, such as miniature cranes, pulleys, pumps, and capstans. Out of a large silver coin he fabricated a punch-ladle, which is still preserved. But the kind of work which most attracted him was the repairing of ships' compasses, quadrants, and nautical instruments, 92 WATT'S HOME EDUCATION. CHAP. V. in executing which he exhibited so much neatness, dex- terity, and accuracy, that it eventually led to his selec- tion of the business he determined to follow, that of a mathematical instrument maker. The boy at the same time prosecuted his education at \school; his improving health enabling him to derive more advantage from the instructions of his masters thaXin the earlier part of his career. Not the least in- fluentral part of his training, as regarded the formation of his character, consisted, as already observed, in the example and conversation of his parents at home. His frequent illnesses brought him more directly and conti- nuously under their influence than is the case with most boys of his age ; and reading became one of his chief sources of recreation and enjoyment. His father's library- shelf contained well-thumbed volumes of Boston, Bunyan, and ' The Cloud of Witnesses,' with Henry the Rymer's ' Life of Wallace,' and other old ballads, tattered by fre- quent use. These he devoured greedily, and re-read until he had most of them by heart. His father would also recount to him the sufferings of the Covenanters, the moors and mosses which lay towards the south of Greenock having been among their retreats during the times of the persecution. Then there were the local and traditionary stories of the neighbourhood, such as the exploits of the Greenock men under Sir John Shaw, at Worcester, in 165 1, 1 together with much of that .un- written history, heard only around firesides, which kindles the Scotchman's nationality, and influences his future life. We may here mention, in passing, that one of the most vividly-remembered incidents of James Watt's boyhood was the Stuart rebellion of the " Forty-five," 1 The Shaw baronetcy was the reward of the feudal superior's ser- vices on the occasion. The banner carried by the tenantry in the civil war was long preserved in Greenock, and was hung up with the other town flags in one of the public rooms. CHAP. V. THE STUART REBELLION. 93 which occurred when he was about ten years old. Watt himself is so intimately identified with the material pro- gress of the nineteenth century, that it strikes one almost with surprise that he should have been a spectator, in however remote a degree, of incidents belonging to an altogether different age. The Stuart Rebellion may be said to have been the end of one epoch and the beginning of another ; for certain it is that the progress of Scot- land as an integral part of the British empire, and the growth of its skilled industry which the inventions of Watt did so much to develop appeared as if to spring from the very ashes of the rebellion. Like other low- land towns, Greenock was greatly alarmed at the start- ling news from the Highlands of the threatened descent of the clans. Sir John Shaw had the trades mustered for drill on the green in front of his mansion, and held them in readiness for defence of the town, in case of attack. G-reenock was otherwise secure, being protected against the Highlands by the Clyde ; besides, the western clans were either neutral or adhered to the house of Hanover. The Pretender with his followers passed southward by Stirling, and only approached Greenock on their return from England, a half-starved and ill- clad, though still unbroken army. They halted at Glas- gow, where they levied a heavy contribution on the inhabitants, and sent out roving parties to try their fortunes in the neighbouring towns. A small detach- ment one day approached Greenock, and came as near as the Clune Brae ; but the townspeople were afoot, and on guard ; signal was given to the ships of war moored near the old battery, and a few well-directed shots speedily sent the Highlanders to the right-about. The alarm was over for the present ; but it was renewed in the following year, when the rumour reached Edinburgh that Prince Charles, hunted from the Highlands, had landed at Greenock, and lay concealed there. The con- sequence was that a strict search was made throughout 94 FASCINATED BY ASTRONOMY. CHAP. V. the town, and Mr. Watt's premises were searched like the others ; but the Pretender had contrived to escape in another direction. Such was one of the most memo- rable incidents in the boy-life of James Watt, so strangely in contrast with the later events of his industrial career. During holiday times, the boy sometimes indulged in rambles along the Clyde, occasionally crossing to the north shore, and strolling up the Gare Loch and Holy Loch, and even as far as Ben Lomond. He was of a solitary disposition, and loved to wander by himself at night amidst the wooded pleasure-grounds which sur- rounded the old mansion-house overlooking the town, watching through the trees the mysterious movements of the stars. He became fascinated by the wonders of astronomy, and was stimulated to inquire into the science by the examination of the nautical instruments which he found amongst his father's shop-stores. For it was a peculiarity which characterised him through life, that he could not look upon any instrument or machine with- out being seized with a desire to understand its mean- ing, to unravel its mystery, and master the rationale of its uses. Before he was fifteen he had twice gone through with great attention S'Gravande's 'Elements of Natural Philosophy,' a book belonging to his father. He performed many little experiments in chemistry, and even contrived to make an electrical machine, much to the marvel of those who felt its shocks. Like most invalids, he read eagerly such books on medicine and surgery as came in his way. He went so far as to prac- tise dissection ; and on one occasion he was found carry- ing off for this purpose the head of a child who had died of some uncommon disease. " He told his son," says Mr. Muirhead, " that, had he been able to bear the sight of the sufferings of patients, he would have been a surgeon." In his solitary rambles, his love of wild-flowers and plants lured him on to the study of botany. Ever ob- CHAP. V. WATT'S LOVE OF READING. 95 servant of the aspects of nature, the violent upheavings of the mountain-ranges on the north shores of Loch Lomond directed his attention to geology. He was a great devourer of books ; reading all that came in his way. On a friend once advising him to he less indis- criminate in his reading, he replied, " I have never yet read a book without gaining information, instruction, or amusement." This was no answer to the admonition of his friend, who merely recommended him to bestow upon the best books the time he devoted to the worse. But the appetite for knowledge in inquisitive minds is, during youth, when curiosity is fresh and unslacked, too insatiable to be fastidious, and the volume which gets the preference is usually the first which comes in the way. Watt was not, however, a mere bookworm. In his solitary walks through the country he would enter the cottages of the peasantry, gather their local traditions, and impart to them information of a similar kind from his own ample stores. Fishing, which suited his tranquil nature, was his single sport. When unable to ramble for the purpose, he could still indulge the pursuit from his father's yard, which was open to the sea, and the water of sufficient depth at high-tide to enable vessels of fifty or sixty tons to lie alongside. But James Watt had now arrived at a suitable age to learn a trade ; and his rambles must come to a close. His father had originally intended him to follow his own business ; but having sustained some heavy losses about this time one of his ships having foundered at sea, and observing the strong bias of his son towards mani- pulative science and exact mechanics, he at length de- cided to send him to Glasgow, in the year 1754, when he was eighteen years old, to learn the trade of a mathe- matical instrument maker. 96 GLASGOW IN 1754. CHAP. \L CHAPTER VI. JAMES WATT, MATHEMATICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER. WHEN James Watt, a youth of eighteen, went to Glasgow in 1754 to learn his trade, the place was very different from the Glasgow of to-day. Not a steam- engine was then at work in the town ; not a steam-boat disturbed the quiet of the Clyde. There was a rough quay along the Broomielaw, then, as the name implies, partly covered with broom. The quay was furnished with a solitary crane, for which there was very little use, as the river was full of sandbanks, and boats and gabberts of only six tons burden and under could then ascend the Clyde. 1 Often for weeks together not a single masted vessel was to be seen in the river. The principal buildings in the town were the Cathedral and the University. The west port, now in the centre of Glasgow, was then a real barrier between the town and the country. The ground on which Enoch-square stands consisted chiefly of gardens. A thick wood occupied the site of the present Custom-house and of that part of Glasgow situated behind West Clyde-street. Blythswood was grazing-ground. Not a house had yet been erected in Hutchinson-town, Laurieston, Tradeston, or Bridge ton. The land between Jamaica-street on the east, and Stobcross on the west, and south from Ander- ston-road to the river, now the most densely populated parts of Glasgow, consisted of fields and cabbage-gardens. 1 According to Smeaton's report in 1755, there were in spring tides only 3 feet 8 inches water at Pointhouse Ford. Measures were taken to deepen the river, and operations with that object were begun in 1768. Salmon abounded in the Clyde, and was so common that servants and apprentices were accustomed to stipulate that they should not have salmon for dinner more than a certain number of days in the week. CHAP. VI. TKOXGATE, GLASGOW The town had but two main streets, which intersected each other at the Cross or Market-place, and the only paved part of them was known as " The Plainstanes," which extended for a few hundred yards in front of the public offices and the Town-hall. The two main streets TRONGATE, GLASGOW. contained some stately well-built houses Flemish-look- ing tenements with crow-stepped gables, the lower stories standing on Doric columns, under which were the principal booths or shops small, low-roofed, and dismal. But the bulk of the houses had only wooden fronts and thatched roofs, and were of a very humble character. The traffic along the unpaved streets was so small, that the carts were left standing in them at night. ? The town was as yet innocent of police ; l it contained 1 The " middens " in the street threatened a penalty of 5s. if middens were sometimes complained of as a of which complaint had been made nuisance; and in 1770, the magistrate I were not removed within 48 hours. 98 THE TOBACCO TRADE. CHAP. VI. no Irish immigrants, and very few Highlanders. The latter then thought it beneath them to engage in any pursuit connected with commerce ; and Eob Roy's con- tempt for the wabsters of Glasgow, as described by Sir Walter Scott in the novel, was no exaggeration. No Highland gentleman, however poor, would dream of condemning his son to the drudgery of trade ; and even the poorest Highland cottar would shrink with loathing from the life of a weaver or a shopkeeper. He would be a hunter, a fisher, a cattle-lifter, or a soldier ; but trade he would not touch that he left to the Low- landers. 1 The principal men of business in Glasgow at the time of which we speak were the tobacco lords importers of that article from the plantations in Virginia, 2 who 1 The Highland gentry and people regarded the Lowlanders as their natural enemies, fair subjects for plunder at all times as opportunities offered. The Lowlanders, on their part, regarded the Highlanders very much as the primitive settlers of North America regarded the Cherokee and Chocktaw Indians. Sometimes a band of uncouth half-clad Highland- men would suddenly rush down upon the Lowlands, swoop up all the cattle w r ithin their reach, and drive them off into the mountains. Hence the Lowlanders and the Highlanders were always in a state of feud. Long after the '45 a Highlandman would " thank God that he had not a drop of Lowland blood in his veins." 2 The only trade which Glasgow carried on with foreign countries pre- vious to the Union, was in coal, grind- stones, and fish, Glasgow - cured herrings being in much repute abroad. After the Union partnerships were formed ; vessels were built down the Clyde, and chartered for carrying on the trade with Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina. The first honest vessel crossed the Atlantic from the Clyde in 1719 ; in 1735 the Virginia mer- chants in Glasgow had fifteen vessels engaged in the trade, and the town shortly after became the great mart for tobacco. Of the 90,000 hogsheads imported into the United Kingdom in 1772, Glasgow alone imported 49,000, or more than one-half. The American Revolution had the effect of completely ruining the tobacco trade of Glasgow, after which the merchants were compelled to turn to other fields of enterprise and in- dustry. The capital which they had accumulated from tobacco enabled them to enter -upon their new un- dertakings with spirit, and the steam- engine which had by that time been invented by their townsman James Watt, proved their best helper in ad- vancing the prosperity of modern Glasgow. The rapidity of its progress may be inferred from the following facts. In 1735, though the Glasgow merchants owned half the entire tonnage of Scotland, it amounted to only 5600 tons. In that year the whole shipping of Scotland was only one-fortieth part of that of England : it is now about one-fifth. From 1752 to 1 770 the total tonnage dues of the harbour of Glasgow amounted to only 147Z., or equal to an average of about SL per annum. In 1780, the Clyde having been deepened in the interval, they reached 1515Z. ; and in 1854, CHAP. VI. PRIMITIVE GLASGOW. 99 were often to be seen strutting along the Plainstanes, dressed in scarlet cloaks, cocked hats, and powdered wigs ; the " boddies " who kept the adjoining shops eying them over their half-closed doors, and humbly watching for a nod of recognition from the mighty potentates. Yet even the greatest of the tobacco lords only lived in flats, entering from a common stair ; and the domestic accom- modation was so scanty and so primitive, that visitors were of necessity received in the bedrooms. This cir- cumstance seems to have hac( some influence in the formation of the Clubs, 1 which then formed a curious feature of society in most Scotch towns. They consisted of knots of men of like tastes and pursuits, who met in the evenings at public-houses for purposes of gossip and social drinking. There they made new and cultivated old acquaintanceships, and exchanged news with each other. The Club combined the uses of the newspaper and the newsroom, which now accomplish the same objects without the drinking. But Glasgow had then no news- paper ; and a London news-sheet of a week old was looked upon as a novelty. There was no coffee-room nor public library in the town ; no theatre 2 nor place of resort open, except the " Change-house ;" so that the Club was re- garded as a social necessity. The drinking was some- times moderate, and sometimes " hard." The better class confined themselves to claret and other French wines, they amounted to 86,5802. The in- crease has been quite as great in later years. In point of value of ex- ports, Glasgow ranks fourth among the ports of the United Kingdom; and Greenock now takes precedence of Bristol. 1 For many curious particulars of Old Glasgow and its society, see Dr. Strang's * Glasgow and its Clubs.' 2 A temporary wooden theatre was run up in 1752, but the religious pre- judices of the population were vio- lently excited by the circumstance, and the place was attacked by a mob and seriously damaged. The few persons who went there had to be protected from insults. In 1762, when some persons proposed to build a theatre, not a single individual who had ground within the burgh would grant them a site. Two years later the theatre was erected outside the precincts, and on the night on which it was opened it was wilfully set on fire by some persons instigated by the preaching of a neighbouring metho- dist, when it narrowly escaped de- struction. H 2 100 WATT'S FTKST MASTER. >. VI. which were then cheap, being free from duty. Those disposed to indulge in more frugal fare confined them- selves to oat-cake and small-beer. It was not until heavy taxes were laid on foreign wines arid malt that the hard whisky-drinking of Scotland set in. Whisky was introduced from the Highlands shortly after the " Forty-five ;" and it soon became the popular drink. By 1780 the drinking of raw whisky in Glasgow at mid- day had become general. 1 When young Watt Arrived in Glasgow he carried with him but a small quantity of baggage ; the articles in his trunk including amongst other things a quadrant, probably a specimen of his own handiwork, a leather apron, about a score of carpenters' and other tools, and " a pair of bibels." On making inquiry for a proper mas- ter, under whom to learn the business of mathematical instrument making, it was found that there was no such person in Glasgow. There was, however, a me- chanic in the town, who dignified himself with the name of " optician," under whom Watt was placed for a time. He was a sort of Jack-of-all-trades, who sold and mended spectacles, repaired fiddles, tuned spinets, made and repaired the simpler instruments used in mechanical drawing, and eked out a slender living by making and selling fishing-rods and fishing-tackle. Watt was MS handy at dressing trout and salmon flies as at most other things, and his master, no doubt, found him useful enough ; but there was nothing to be learnt in return for his services. Though his master was an ingenious workman, in a small way, and could turn his ready hand 1 When the Lowlanders want to drink a cheering cup, they go to the public-house, called the Change-house, and call for a chopin of twopenny, which is their yeasty beverage, made of malt, not quite so strong as the table-beer of England. . . . . The Highlanders, on the contrary, despise the liquor, and regale themselves with whisky, or malt spirit, as strong as Geneva, which they swallow in great quantities, without any signs of inebriation : they are used to it from the cradle, and find it an excellent preservative against the winter cold, which must be extreme on these mountains. Smollett, ' Expedition of Humphry Clinker.' CHAP. VI. JOURNEY TO LONDON. 101 to anything, it soon became clear to Watt's relations, the Muirheads, with whom he lived during his stay, that the instructions of such an artist were little likely to advance him in mathematical instrument making. Among the gentlemen to whom "Watt was introduced by his relatives was Dr. Dick, Professor of Natural Phi- losophy in Glasgow College, who strongly recommended him to proceed to London, and there place himself under the instruction of some competent master. Watt con- sulted his father on the subject, who readily gave his sanction to the proposal ; and, with a letter of introduc- tion from Dr. Dick in his pocket, he set out for the great city accordingly. No stage-coach then ran between Glasgow and Lon- don ; so it was determined that young Watt should pro- ceed on horseback, then the most convenient and speedy mode of travelling. His chest was sent by sea. Old Mr. Watt's memorandum-book at Heathfield contains the following entry, under date the 6th June, 1755 "*. " To send James Watt's chist to the care of Mr. William Oman, Ventener in Leith, to be shypt for London to ye care of Captain \\illiam Watson, at the Hermitage, London. " P d- 3s. Gd. for wagon carage to Edenbrough of chist. P d - to son James 21. '2s. P d - Plaster and Pomet, Is. 4rf. P d 4 doz. pencels, Is. 6tf." The "plaster and pomet" may possibly have been pro- vided in view of the long journey on horseback and its contingencies. Jt was arranged that the youth should travel in the company of a relative, Mr. Marr, a sea- captain, who was on his way to join his ship, then lying in the Thames. They set out on the 7th of June, travelling by way of Coldstream and Newcastle, where they joined the great north road, then comparatively practicable to the south of Durham. They reached London safely on the 19th, having been about a fort- night on the road. 102 SEARCH FOR A MASTER. CHAP. VI. Mr. Marr immediately proceeded to make inquiries for a mathematical instrument maker with whom to place his young friend. But it was found that a serious obstacle presented itself in the rules of the trade, which prescribed that those employed must either be appren- tices serving under a seven years' apprenticeship, or, if journeymen, that they should have served for that term. Watt, however, had no intention of binding himself to serve for so long a period, and he had no pretensions to rank as a journeyman. His object was to learn the business in the shortest possible time, and then return to Glasgow and set up for himself. The two went about from shop to shop, but only met with rebuffs. " I have not yet got a master," Watt wrote to his father about a fortnight after his arrival ; "we have tried several, but they all made some objection or other. I find that, if any of them agree with me at all, it will not be for less than a year ; and even for that time they will be expecting some money." Mr. Marr continued to exert himself on behalf of the youth. Anxious to be employed in any way rather than not at all, Watt offered his services gratuitously to a watchmaker named Neale, with whom Mr. Marr did business, and he was allowed to occupy himself in his shop for a time, cutting letters and figures in metal. At length a situation of a more permanent character was obtained for him ; and he entered the shop of Mr. John Morgan, a respectable mathematical instrument maker in Cornhill, on the terms of receiving a year's instruc- tion in return for a fee of twenty guineas and the pro- ceeds of his labour during that time. He soon proved himself a ready learner and skilful workman. That division of labour, the result of an extensive trade, which causes the best London carriages to be superior to any of provincial construction, was even then applied to mathematical instruments. " Very few here," wrote Watt, " know any more than how to make a rule, others CHAP. VI. WATT'S LIFE IN LONDON. 103 a pair of dividers, and such like." His first employment was in making brass scales, rules, parallels, and the brass- work of quadrants ; and by the end of a month he was able to finish a Hadley's quadrant in better style than any apprentice in the shop. From rule and quadrant making he proceeded to azimuth compasses, brass sectors, theodolites, and the more delicate kinds of instruments. At the end of the year he wrote home to his father that he had made " a brass sector with a French joint, which is reckoned as nice a piece of framing-work as is in the trade ;" and he expressed the hope that he would soon be able to work for himself, and earn his bread by his own industry. Up to this time he had necessarily been maintained by his father, on whom he drew from time to time. Mr. Watt's memorandum-books show that on the 27th of June he remitted him 10. ; on the 24th of August following he enters : " Sent George Anderson by post SI. to buy a bill of 7/. or 8/. to send Whey thread and Gifferd, and ballance of my son's bill, 21. 2,9. 3d., for which ame to remite him more ;" and on the 1 1th September following, the balance was forwarded through the same channel. On the 24th October, 4. 10s. was in like manner sent to George Anderson " on son James's second bill ;" and on the 31st December, 10/. was remitted, " to be put to the credit of son James's last bill." To relieve his father as much as possible for the cost of his main- tenance in London, Watt lived in a very frugal style, avoiding all unnecessary expenses. His living cost him only eight shillings a week ; and he could not reduce it below that, he wrote to his father, " without pinching his belly." He also sought for some remunerative work on his own account ; and when he could obtain it he sat up at night to execute it. During Watt's stay in London he was in a great measure prevented from stirring abroad by the hot press for sailors which was then going on. As many as forty 104 DANGER FROM PBESSGANGS. CHAP. VI pressgangs were at work, seizing all able-bodied men they could lay hands on. In one night they took not fewer than a thousand men. Nor were the kidnappers idle. These were the agents of the East India Company, who had crimping-houses in different parts of the city for receiving the men whom they had seized upon for service in the Indian army. Even when the demand for soldiers abated, the kidnappers continued their trade, and sold their unhappy victims to the planters in Pennsylvania and other North American colonies. Sometimes severe fights took place between the pressgangs and the kidnappers for possession of those who had been seized, the law and police being apparently powerless to protect them. " They now press anybody they can get," Watt wrote in the spring of 1756, "landsmen as well as seamen, except it be in the liberties of the city, where they are obliged to carry them before the Lord Mayor first ; and unless one be either a prentice or a creditable tradesman, there is scarce any getting off again. And if I was carried before my Lord Mayor, I durst not avow that 1 wrought in the city, it being against their laws for. any unfree- man to work even as a journeyman within the liberties." J What a curious glimpse does this give us into the prac- tice of man-hunting in London in the eighteenth century ! Watt's enforced confinement, together with his se- dentary habits and unremitting labour, soon told upon his weak frame. When he hurried to his lodgings at night, his body was wearied, and his nerves exhausted, so that his hands shook like those of an old man ; yet he persevered with the extra work which he imposed upon himself, in order to earn a little honest money to help to pay for his living. His seat in Mr. Morgan's shop being placed close to the door, which was often opened and shut in the course of the day, he caught Letter to his lather quoted in Mini-head's ' Life of Watt,' p. ol). CHAP. VI. RETURNS TO SCOTLAND. 105 a severe cold in the course of the winter ; and he was afflicted by a racking cough and severe rheumatic pains, from the effects of which he long* continued to suffer. Distressed by a gnawing pain in his back, and greatly depressed in spirits, he at length, with his father's sanction, determined to return to Greenock, to seek for renewal of health in his native air. His father made him a further remittance to enable him to purchase some of the tools required for his trade, together with materials for making others, and a copy of Bioii's work on the construction and use of Mathematical Instru- ments. Having secured these, he set out on his return journey for Scotland, and reached Greenock in safety in the autumn of 1756. There his health soon became sufficiently restored to enable him to return to work; and with the concurrence and help of his father, he shortly after proceeded to Glasgow, in his twentieth year, to begin business on his own account. In endeavouring to establish himself in his trade, Watt encountered the same obstacle which in London had almost prevented his learning it. Although there were no mathematical instrument makers in Glasgow, and it must have been a public advantage to have so skilled a mechanic settled in the place, Watt was opposed by the corporation of hammermen on the ground that he was neither the son of a burgess nor had served an apprenticeship within the borough. 1 Failing in his endeavours to open a place of business, he next tried to prevail on the corporation to allow him to make use of a small workshop wherein to make experiments; but 1 The following " letter of Guildry " burgh, as they shall think fit, ay and while the said unfreemen be put off embodied the local regulations which existed for the purpose of preventing " loss and skaith " to the burgesses and craftsmen of Glasgow by the in- trusion of " strangers " : " The Dean of Guild and his Council shall have put off the town, and restrained, or else be made free with the town and their crafts ; and sic like, to pursue, upon the judges competent, all persons dwelling within this burgh, and usurp- full power to discharge, punish, and ing the liberty thereof, obtain dicrets unlaw all persons, unfreemen, using against them, and cause the same to the liberty of a freeman within the 1 be put to speedy execution." 106 GAINS ASYLUM IN GLASGOW COLLEGE. CHAP. VI. this also was peremptorily refused. The hammermen were doubtless acting in a very narrow spirit, in thus excluding the young mechanic from the privileges of citizenship ; but such was the custom of the times, those who were within the favoured circles usually putting their shoulders together to exclude those who were without. Watt had, however, already been em- ployed by Dr. Dick, Professor of Natural Philosophy, to repair some mathematical instruments which had been bequeathed to the University by a gentleman in the West Indies ; and the professors, having an absolute authority within the area occupied by the college buildings, deter- mined to give him an asylum there, and thus free him from the incubus of the guilds. In the heart of old Glasgow city, not far from the cathedral of St. Mungo, which Knox with difficulty pre- served from the fury of the Scotch iconoclasts, stands the venerable University, a curiously black and sombre building, more than 400 years old. Inside the entrance, on the right-hand side, is a stone staircase, guarded by fabulous beasts in stone. The buildings consist of several quadrangles ; but there is not much regularity in their design, each part seeming to stand towards the other -^~- INNER QUADKANGLE, GLASGOW COLLEGE CHAP. VI. HIS SHOP IN GLASGOW COLLEGE. 107 parts, in a state of independent crookedness and irregu- larity. There are turrets in the corners of the quad- rangles, turrets with peaked tops, like witches' caps. In the inner quadrangle, entered from the left-hand side of the outer court, a workshop was found for our mecha- nician, in which he was securely established by the midsummer of 1757. The apartment appropriated to Watt by the professors is still to be seen in nearly the same rude state in which he left it. It is situated on the first floor of the range of building forming the north- west side of the inner quadrangle, immediately under the gallery of the Natural Philosophy class, with which it communicates. It is lighted by three windows, two of which open into the quadrangle, and the third, at the back, into the Professors' court. There is a small closet in the corner of the room, where some students have cut their names in the plaster, date "1713." The access to the room used to be from the court by a spiral stone staircase ; but that entrance is now closed. The apartment is only about twenty feet square ; but it served Watt, as it has since served others, for high thinking and noble working. 1 In addition to his workshop under the Natural Phi- losophy class, a shop for the sale of his instruments was also appropriated to Watt by the Professors. It formed the ground-floor of the house situated next to the Prin- cipal's Gate, being part of the University Buildings, and was entered directly from the pavement of the High Street. It has been described to us, on the authority of Professor Fleming, as an old house, with a sort of arcade in front, supported on pillars. In making some altera- tions in the building the pillars were too much weakened, and the house, excepting the basement, had to be taken 1 When we visited the room some years since, we found laid there the galvanic apparatus employed by Pro- fessor Thomson for perfecting the invention of his delicate process of signalling through the wires of the Atlantic Telegraph. 108 FINDS HIMSELF IN DIFFICULTIES. CHAP. VI. down. The shop occupied by Watt is the little tenement shown on the right hand of the following engraving ; but the lower story of the building has since been altered and repaired, and is now totally different from what it was in Watt's time. ISOMETRIC VIEW OI<' GLASGOW COLLEGE, 1693, FKOM. SLE TEH'S 'TBEATKUM SCO7'I ' 1 Though his wants were few, and he lived on humble fare, Watt found it very difficult to earn a subsistence by his trade. His father sent him remittances from time to time ; but the old man had suffered serious losses in his own business, and had become much less able to help his son with money. After a year's trial, Watt wrote to his father, that " unless it be the Hadley's instru- ments there is little to be got by it, as at most other jobs I am obliged to do the most of them myself; and, as 1 The illustration does not show the Inner Quadrangle, situated to the left of the Main Court, that part of the building having been added since the view was published. CHAP. VI. HIS SLKXDK1! P.l'SIXKSS. 109 it is impossible tor one person to be expert at every- thing, they often cost me more time than they should do." Of the quadrants, he could make three in a week, with the help of a lad ; but the profit upon the three was not more than 40