AFTER Watt was restored to himself the first subject
which we find attracting him was the misfortunes of Roebuck, whose affairs
were now in the hands of his creditors. "My heart bleeds for him," says
Watt, "but I can do nothing to help him. I have "stuck by him, indeed, until
I have hurt myself." Roebuck's affairs were far too vast to be affected by
all that Watt had or could have borrowed. For the thousand pounds Watt had
paid on Roebuck's account to secure the patent, he was still in debt to
Black. This was subsequently paid, however, with interest, when Watt became
prosperous.
We now bid farewell to Roebuck with genuine regret. He
had proved himself a fine character throughout, just the kind of partner
Watt needed. It was a great pity that he had to relinquish his interest in
the patent, when, as we shall see, it would soon have saved him from
bankruptcy and secured him a handsome competence. He must ever rank as one
of the men almost indispensable to Watt in the development of his engine,
and a dear, true friend.
The darkest hour comes before the dawn, and so it
proved here. As Roebuck retired, there appeared a star of hope of the first
magnitude, in no less a person than the celebrated Matthew Boulton of
Birmingham, of whom we must say a few words by way of introduction to our
readers, for in all the world there was not his equal as a partner for Watt,
who was ever fortunate in his friends. Of course Watt was sure to have
friends, for he was through and through the devoted friend himself, and won
the hearts of those worth winning. "If you wish to make a friend, be one,"
is the sure recipe.
Boulton was not only obviously the right man but lie
came from the right place, for Birmingham was the headquarters of mechanical
industry. At this time, 1776, there was at last a good road to London. As
late as 1747 the coach was advertised to run there in two days only "if the
roads permit."
If skilled mechanics, Watt's greatest need, were to be
found anywhere, it was here in the centre of mechanical skill, and
especially was it in the celebrated works of Boulton, which had been
bequeathed from worthy sire to worthy son, to be largely extended and more
than ever preeminent.
Boulton left school early to engage in his father's
business. When only seventeen years old, he had made several improvements in
the manufacture of buttons, watch chains, and various trinkets, and had
invented the inlaid steel buckles, which became so fashionable. It is stated
that in that early day it was found necessary to export them in large
quantities to France to be returned and sold in Britain as the latest
productions of French skill and taste. It is well to get a glimpse of human
nature as seen here. Fashion decides for a time with supreme indifference to
quality. It is a question of the name.
At his father's death, the son inherited the business.
Great credit belongs to him for unceasingly laboring to improve the quality
of his products and especially to raise the artistic standard, then so low
as to have already caused "Brummagem" to become a term of reproach. He not
only selected the cleverest artisans, but he employed the best artists,
Flaxman being one, to design the artistic articles produced. The natural
result followed. Boulton's work soon gained high reputation. New and larger
factories became necessary, and the celebrated Soho works arose in I 762.
The spirit in which Boulton pursued business is revealed in a letter to his
partner at Soho from London. "The prejudice that Birmingham hath so justly
established against itself makes every fault conspicuous in "all articles
that have the least pretensions to taste." It may interest American readers
familiar with One Dollar watches, rendered possible by production upon a
large scale, that it was one of Boulton's leading ideas in that early day
that articles in common use could be produced much better and cheaper "if
manufactured "by the help of the best machinery upon a large "scale, and
this could be successfully done in the "making of clocks and timepieces." He
promptly erected the machinery and started this new branch of business. Both
King and Queen received him cordially and became his patrons. Soho works
soon became famous and one of the show places of the country; princes,
philosophers, poets, authors and merchants from foreign lands visited them
and were hospitably received by Boulton.
He was besieged with requests to take gentlemen
apprentices into the works, hundreds of podnds sometimes being offered as
premium, but he resolutely declined, preferring to employ boys whom he could
train up as workmen. He replies to a gentleman applicant, "I have built and
furnished a house for the "reception of one class of apprentices—fatherless
children, parish apprentices, and hospital boys; and gentlemen's Sons would
probably find themselves out of "place in such companionship."
It is not to be inferred that Boulton grew up an
uncultured man because he left school very early. On the contrary, he
steadily educated himself, devoting much time to study, so that with his
good looks, handsome presence, the manners of the gentleman born, and
knowledge much beyond the average of that class, he had little difficulty in
winning for his wife a lady of such position in the county as led to some
opposition on the part of members of her family to the suitor, but only "on
account of his being in trade." There exists no survival of this objection
in these days of American alliances with heirs of the highest British
titles. We seem now to have as its substitute the condition that the father
of the bride must be in trade and that heavily and to some purpose.
Boulton, like most busy men, had time, and an open
mind, for new ideas. None at this time interested him so deeply as that of
the steam engine. Want of water-power proved a serious difficulty at Soho.
He wrote to a friend, "The enormous expense of the "horsepower" (it was also
irregular and sometimes failed) "put me upon thinking of turning the mill by
fire. I made many fruitless experiments on the subject."
Boulton wrote Franklin, February 22, 1766, in London,
about this, and sent a model he had made. Franklin replies a month later,
apologising for the delay on account of "the hurry and anxiety I have been
"engaged in with our American affairs." [If those in London had only
listened to Franklin and taken his advice when he pleaded for British
liberties for British subjects in America It is refreshing to read in our
day how completely the view regarding colonies has changed in Britain. These
are now pronounced Independent nations, free to go or stay in the empire, as
they choose, the very surest way to prolong the connection. This is true
statesmanship. Being free, the chains become decorations and cease to chafe
the wearer, unless great growth comes, when the colony must at its maturity
perforce either merge with the motherland under one joist government or
become a free and independent nation, giving her sons a country of their own
for which to live, and, if necessary, to die.]
Tamer of lightning and tamer of steam, Franklin and
Watt—one of the new, the other of the old branch of our English-speaking
race—co-operating in enlarging the powers of man and pushing forward the
chariot of progress—fit subject, this, for the sculptor and painter!
How much further the steam engine is to be the handmaid
of electricity cannot be told, for it seems impossible to set limits to the
future conquests of the latter, which is probably destined to perform
miracles undreamt of to-day, perhaps coupled in some unthoughtof way, with
radium, the youngest sprite of the weird, uncanny tribe of mysterious
agents. Uranium, the supposed basis of the latest discovery, Radium, has
only one-millionth part of the heat of the latter. The slow-moving earth
takes twenty-four hours to turn upon its axis. Radium covers an equal
distance while we pronounce its name. One and one-quarter seconds, and
twenty-five thousand miles are traversed. Puck promises to put his "girdle
round the earth in forty minutes." Radium would pass the fairy girdlist in
the spin round sixteen hundred times. Thus truth, as it is being evolved in
our day, becomes stranger than the wildest imaginings of fiction. Our
century seems on the threshold of discoveries and advances, not less
revolutionary, perhaps more so, than those that have sprung from steam and
electricity. "Canst thou send lightnings to say 'Lo, here I am'?" silenced
man. It was so obviously beyond his power until last century. Now he smiles
as he reads the question. Is Tyndal's prophecy to be verified that "the
potency of all things is yet to be found in matter"?
We may be sure the searching, restless brains of
Franklin and Watt would have been meditating upon strange things these days
if they were now alive.
Boulton is entitled to rank, so far as the writer
knows, as the first man in the world worthy to wear Carlyle's now somewhat
familiar title, "Captain of "Industry" for he was in his day foremost in the
industrial field, and before that, industrial organisations had not
developed far enough to create or require captains, in Carlyle's sense.
Roebuck, while Watt's partner, was one of Boulton's
correspondents, and told him of Watt's progress with the model engine which
proved so successful. Boulton was deeply interested, and expressed a desire
that Watt should visit him at Soho. This he did, on his return from a visit
to London concerning the patent. Boulton was not at home, but his intimate
friend, Dr. Small, then residing at Birmingham, a scientist and philosopher,
whom Franklin had recommended to Boulton, took Watt in charge. Watt was
amazed at what he saw, for this was his first meeting with trained and
skilled mechanics, the lack of whom had made his life miserable. The
precision of both tools and workmen sank deep. Upon a subsequent visit, he
met the captain himself, his future partner, and of course, as like draws to
like, they drew to each other, a case of mutual liking at first sight. We
meet one stranger, and stranger he remains to the end of the chapter. We
meet another, and ere we part he is a kindred soul. Magnetic attraction is
sudden. So with these two who, by a kind of free-masonry, knew that each had
met his affinity. The Watt engine was exhaustively canvassed and its
inventor was delighted that the great, sagacious, prudent and practical
manufacturer should predict its success as he did. Shortly after this,
Professor Robison visited Soho, which was a magnet that attracted the
scientists in those clays. Boulton told him that he had stopped work upon
his proposed pumping engine. "I would necessarily avail myself of "what I
learned from Mr. Watt's conversation, and this would not be right without
his consent."
It is such a delicate sense of honor as is here
displayed that marks the man, and finally makes his influence over others
commanding in business. It is not sharp practice and smart bargaining that
tell. On the contrary, there is no occupation in which not only fair but
liberal dealing brings greater reward. The best bargain is that good for
both parties. Boulton and 'Watt were friends. That much was settled. They
had business transactions later, for we find Watt sending a package
containing "one dozen German "flutes" (made of course by him in Glasgow),
"at 5s. each, and a copper digester, £1: 10." Boulton's people probably
wished samples.
Much correspondence followed between Dr. Small and
Watt, the latter constantly expressing the wish that Mr. Boulton could be
induced to become partner with himself and Roebuck in his patents. Naturally
the sagacious manufacturer was disinclined to associate himself with Mr.
Roebuck, then in financial straits, but the position changed when he had
become bankrupt and affairs were in the hands of creditors. Watt therefore
renewed the subject and agreed to go and settle in Birmingham, as he had
been urged to do. Roebuck's pitiable condition he keenly felt, and had done
everything possible to ameliorate.
What little I can do for him is purchased by denying
myself the conveniences of life my station requires, or by remaining in
debt, which it galls me to the bone to owe. I shall be content to hold a
very small share in the partnership, or none at all, provided I am to be
freed from my pecuniary obligations to Roebuck and have any kind of
recompense for even a part of the anxiety and ruin it has involved me in.
Thus wrote Watt to his friend Small, August 30, 1772.
Small's reply pointed out one difficulty which deserves notice and
commendation. "It is impossible for Mr. "Boulton and me, or any other honest
man, to purchase, "especially from two particular friends, what has no
market price, and at a time when they might be inclined to part with the
commodity at an under value." This is an objection which to stock-exchange
standards may seem "not well taken," and far too fantastical for the
speculative domain, and yet it is neither surprising nor unusual in the
realms of genuine business, in which men are concerned with or creating only
intrinsic values.
The result so ardently desired by 'Watt was reached in
this unexpected fashion. It was found that in the ordinary course of
business Roebuck owed Boulton a balance of $6,000. Boulton agreed to take
the Roebuck interest in the 'Watt patent for the debt. As the creditors
considered the patent interest worthless, they gladly accepted. As 'Watt
said, "it was only paying one bad debt with another."
Boulton asked Watt to act as his attorney in the
matter, which he did, writing Boulton that "the thing "is now a shadow; 'tis
merely ideal, and will cost time and money to realise it." This as late as
March 29, 1773, after eight years of constant experimentation, with many
failures and disappointments, since the discovery of the separate condenser
in 1765, which was then hailed, and rightly so, as the one thing needed. It
remained the right and only foundation upon which to develop the steam
engine, but many minor obstacles intervened, requiring Watt's inventive and
mechanical genius to overcome.
The transfer of Roebuck's two-third interest to Boulton
afterward carried with it the formation of the celebrated firm of Boulton
and Watt. The latter arranged his affairs as quickly as possible. He had
only made $j,000 for a whole year spent in surveying, and part of that he
gave to Roebuck in his necessity, "so that I can barely support myself and
"keep untouched the small sum I have allotted for my visit to you." (Watt to
Small, July 25, 1773). This is pitiable indeed—Watt pressed for money to pay
his way to Birmingham upon important business.
The trial engine was shipped from Kinneil to Soho and
Watt arrived in May, 1774, in Birmingham. Here a new life opened before him,
still enveloped in clouds, but we may please ourselves by believing that
through these the wearied and harassed inventor did not fail to catch
alluring visions of the sun. Let us hope he remembered the words of the
beautiful hymn he had no doubt often sung in his youth:
"Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take "The clouds
ye so much dread "Are big with mercy, and shall break "With blessings
on your head."
Partnership requires not duplicates, but opposites— a
union of different qualities. He who proves indispensable as a partner to
one man might be wholly useless, or even injurious, to another. Generals
Grant and Sherman needed very different chiefs of staff. One secret of
Napoleon's success arose from his being free to make his own appointments,
choosing the men who had the qualities which supplemented his and cured his
own shortcomings, for every man has shortcomings. The universal genius who
can manage all himself has yet to appear. Only one with the genius to
recognise others of different genius and harness them to his own car can
approach the "universal." It is a case of different but co-operating
abilities, each part of the complicated machine fitting into its right
place, and there performing its duty without jarring.
Never were two men more "supplementary" to each other
than Boulton and Watt, and hence their success. One possessed in perfection
the qualities the other lacked. Smiles sums this up so finely that we must
quote him:
Different though their characters were in most
respects, Boulton at once conceived a hearty liking for him. The one
displayed in perfection precisely those qualities which the other wanted.
Boulton was a man of ardent and generous temperament, bold and enterprising,
undaunted by difficulty, and possessing an almost boundless capacity for
work. He was a man of great tact, clear perception, and sound judgment.
Moreover, he possessed that indispensable quality of perseverance, without
which the best talents are of comparatively little avail in the conduct of
important affairs. While Watt hated business, Boulton loved it. He had,
indeed, a genius for business—a gift almost as rare as that for poetry, for
art, or for war. He possessed a marvellous power of organisation. With a
keen eye for details, he combined a comprehensive grasp of intellect. While
his senses were so acute, that when sitting in his office at Soho he could
detect the slightest stoppage or derangement in the machinery of that vast
establishment, and send his message direct to the spot where it had
occurred, his power of imagination was such as enabled him to look clearly
along extensive lines of possible action in Europe, America, and the East.
For there is a poetic as well as a commonplace side to business; and the man
of business genius lights up the humdrum routine of daily life by exploring
the boundless region of possibility wherever it may lie open before him.
This tells the whole story, and once again reminds us
that without imagination and something of the romantic element, little great
or valuable is to be done in any field. He "runs his business as if it were
a it was said upon one occasion. The man who finds no element of romance in
his occupation is to be pitied. We know how radically different Watt was in
his nature to Boulton, whose judgment of men was said to be almost unerring.
He recognised in Watt at their first interview, not only the original
inventive genius, but the indefatigable, earnest, plodding and thorough
mechanic of tenacious grip, and withal a fine, modest, true man, who hated
bargaining and all business affairs, who cared nothing for wealth beyond a
very modest provision for old age, and who was only happy if so situated
that without anxiety for money to supply frugal wants, he could devote his
life to the development of the steam engine. Thus auspiciously started the
new firm.
But Boulton was more than a man of business, continues
Smiles; he was a man of culture, and the friend of educated men. His
hospitable mansion at Soho was the resort of persons eminent in art, in
literature, and in science; and the love and admiration with which he
inspired such men affords one of the best proofs of his own elevation of
character. Among the most intimate of his friends and associates were
Richard Lovell Edgeworth, a gentleman of fortune, enthusiastically devoted
to his long-conceived design of moving land-carriages by steam; Captain Keir,
an excellent practical chemist, a wit and a man of learning; Dr. Small, the
accomplished physician, chemist and mechanist; Josiah Wedgwood, the
practical philosopher and manufacturer, founder of a new and important
branch of skilled industry; Thomas Day, the ingenious author of "Sandford
and Merton"; Dr. Darwin, the poet-physician; Dr. Withering, the botanist;
besides others who afterward joined the Soho circle, not the least
distinguished of whom were Joseph Priestley and James Watt.
The first business in hand was the reconstruction of
the engine brought from Kinneil, which upon trial performed much better than
before, wholly on account of the better workmanship attainable at Soho; but
there still recurs the unceasing complaint that runs throughout the long
eight years of trial—lack of accurate tools and skilled workmen, the
difference in accuracy between the blacksmith standard and that of the
mathematical-instrument maker. Watt and Boulton alike agreed that the
inventions were scientifically correct and needed only proper construction.
In our day it is not easy to see the apparently insuperable difficulty of
making anything to scale and perfectly accurate, but we forget what the
world of Watt was and how far we have advanced since.
Watt wrote to his father at Greenock, November, 1774:
"The business I am here about has turned it rather successful; that is to
say, the fire-engine I have invented is now going, and answers "much better
than any other that has yet been made." This is as is usual with the Scotch
in speech, in a low key and extremely modest, on a par with the verdict
rendered by the Dunfermline critic who had ventured to attend "the
playhouse" in Edinburgh to see Garrick in Hamlet—"no bad." The truth was
that, so pronounced were the results of proper workmanship, coupled with
some of those improvements which Watt was constantly devising, the engine
was so satisfactory as to set both J3oulton and Watt to thinking about the
patent which protected the invention. Six of the fourteen years for which it
was granted had already passed. Some years would still be needed to ensure
its general use, and it was feared that before the patent expired little
return might be received. Much interest was aroused by the successful trial.
Enquiries began to pour in for pumping engines for mines. The Newcomen had
proved inadequate to work the mines as they became deeper, and many were
being abandoned in consequence. The necessity for a new power had set many
ingenious men to work besides Watt, and some of these were trying to adopt
Watt's principles while avoiding his patent. Hatley, one of Watt's workmen
upon the trial engine at the Canon works, had stolen and sold the drawings.
All this put Boulton and Watt on their guard, and the
former hesitated to build the new works intended for the manufacture of
steam engines upon a large scale with improved machinery. An extension of
the patent seemed essential, and to secure this Watt proceeded to London and
spent some time there, busy in his spare moments visiting the mathematical
instrument shops of his youth, and attending to numerous commissions from
Boulton. A second visit was paid to London, during which the sad
intelligence of the death of his dear friend, Dr. Small, reached him. In the
bitterness of his grief, Boulton writes him: "If there were not a few other
objects yet remaining for me to settle my affections upon, I should wish
also to take up my abode in the mansions of the dead." Watt's sympathetic
reply reminds Boulton of the sentiments held by their departed friend—that,
instead of indulging in unavailing sorrow, the best refuge is the more
sedulous performance of duties. "Come, my dear sir," he writes, "and immerse
yourself in this sea of business as soon as possible. Pay a proper respect
to your friend by obeying his precepts. No endeavour of mine shall be
wanting to make life agreeable to you."
Beautiful partnership this, not only of business, but
also entering into the soul close and deep, comprehending all of life and
all we know of death.
Professor Small, born 1734, was a Scot, who went to
Williamsburg University, Virginia, as Professor of mathematics and natural
philosophy. Thomas Jefferson was among his pupils. His health suffered, and
he returned to the old home. Franklin introduced him to Boulton, writing
(May 22, 1765):
I beg leave to introduce my friend Doctor Small to your
acquaintance, and to recommend him to your civilities. I would not take this
freedom if I were not sure it would be agreeable to you; and that you will
thank me for adding to the number of those who from their knowledge of you
must respect you, one who is both an ingenious philosopher and a most
worthy, honest man. If anything new in magnetism or electricity, or any
other branch of natural knowledge, has occurred to your fruitful genius
since I last had the pleasure of seeing you, you will by communicating it
greatly oblige me.
This man must have been one of the finest characters
revealed in Watt's life. Aitho he left little behind him to ensure permanent
remembrance, the extraordinary tributes paid his memory by friends establish
his right to high rank among the coterie of eminent men who surrounded Watt
and Boulton. Boulton records that "there being nothing which I wish to fix
in my mind so permanently as the remembrance of "my clear departed friend, I
(lid not delay to erect a "memorial in the prettiest but most obscure part
of my "garden, from which you see the church in which he "was interred." Dr.
Darwin contributed the verses inscribed. Upon hearing of Small's illness Day
hastened from Brussels to b,e present at the last hour.
Keir writes, announcing Small's death to his brother,
the Rev. Robert Small, in Dundee, "It is needless to say how universally he
is lamented; for no man ever enjoyed or deserved more the esteem of mankind.
We loved him with the tenderest affection and shall ever revere his memory."
Watt's voluminous correspondence with Professor Small,
previous to his partnership with Boulton, proves Small at that time to have
been his intimate friend and counsellor. We scarcely know in all literature
of a closer union between two men. Many verses of Tennyson's Memorial to
Hallam could be appropriately applied to their friendship. Watt did not
apparently give way to lamentations as Boulton and others did who were
present at Small's death, probably because the receipt of Boulton's
heart-breaking letter impressed Watt with the need of assuming the part of
comforter to his partner, who was face to face with death, and had to bear
the direct blow. Watt's tribute to his dear friend came later.
Future operations necessarily depended upon the
extension of the patent. Boulton, of course, could not proceed with the
works. There was as yet no agreement between Watt and Boulton beyond joint
ownership in the patent. At this time, Watt's most intimate friend of
youthful years in Glasgow University, Professor Robison, was Professor of
mathematics in the Government Naval School, Kronstadt. He secured for Watt
an appointment at $5,000 per annum, a fortune to the poor inventor; but
although this would have relieved him from dependence upon Boulton, and
meant future affluence, he declined, alleging that Boulton's favours were so
gracefully conferred that dependence on him was not felt."
He made Watt feel "that the obligation was entirely
"upon the side of the giver." Truly we must canonise Boulton. He was not
only the first "Captain of Industry," but also a model for all others to
follow.
The bill extending the patent was introduced in
Parliament February, 1775. Opposition soon developed. The mining interest
was in serious trouble owing to the deepening of the mines and the
unbearable expense of pumping the water. They had looked forward to the Watt
engine soon to be free of patent rights to relieve them. No monopoly," was
their cry, nor were they without strong support, for Edmund Burke pleaded
the cause of his mining constituents near Bristol.
We need not follow the discussion that ensued upon the
propriety of granting the patent extension. Suffice to say it was finally
granted for a term of twenty-four years, and the path was clear at last.
Britain was to have probably for the first time great works and new tools
specially designed for a specialty to be produced upon a large scale.
Boulton had arranged to pay Roebuck $5,000 out of the first profits from the
patent in addition to the $6,000 of debt cancelled. He now anticipated
payment of the thousand, at the urgent request of Roebuck's assignees,
giving in so doing pretty good evidence of his faith in prompt returns from
the engines, for which orders came pouring in. New mechanical facilities
followed, as well as a supply of skilled mechanics.
The celebrated Wilkinson now appears upon the scene,
first builder of iron boats, and a leading iron- founder of his day, an
original Captain of Industry of the embryonic type, who began working in a
forge for three dollars a week. He cast a cylinder eighteen inches in
diameter, and invented a boring machine which bored it accurately, thus
remedying one of Watt's principal difficulties. This cylinder was
substituted for the tin-lined cylinder of the triumphant Kinneil engine.
Satisfactory as were the results of the engine before, the new cylinder
improved upon these greatly. Thus Wilkinson was pioneer in iron ships, and
also in ordering the first engine built at Soho— truly an enterprising man.
Great pains were taken by Watt that this should be perfect, as so much
depended upon a successful start. Many concerns suspended work upon Newcomen
engines, countermanded orders, or refrained from placing them, awaiting
anxiously the performance of this heralded wonder, the Watt engine. As it
approached completion, Watt became impatient to test its powers, but the
prudent, calm Boulton insisted that not one stroke be made until every
possible hindrance to successful working had been removed. He adds, "then,
in the name of God, fall to and do your best." Admirable order of battle! It
was "Be sure you're right, then go ahead," in the vernacular. Watt acted
upon this, and when the trial came the engines worked "to the admiration of
all." The news of this spread rapidly. Enquiries and orders for engines
began to flow in. No wonder when we read that of thirty engines of former
makers in one coal- mining district only eighteen were at work. The others
had failed. Boulton wrote Watt to
tell Wilkinson to get a dozen cylinders cast and
bored..... I have fixed my mind upon making from twelve to fifteen
reciprocating engines and fifty rotative engines per annum. Of all the toys
and trinkets we manufacture at Soho, none shall take the place of
fire-engines in respect of my attention.
The captain was on deck, evidently. Sixty-five engines
per year—prodigious for these days—nothing like this was ever heard of
before. Two thousand per year is the record of one firm in Philadelphia
to-day, but let us boast not. Perhaps one hundred and twenty-nine years
hence will have as great a contrast to show. The day of small factories, as
of small nations, is past. Increasing magnitude, to which it is hard to set
a limit, is the order of the day.
So far all was well, the heavy clouds that had so long
hovered menacingly over Boulton and Watt had been displaced once more by
clear skies. But no new machinery or new manufacturing business starts
without accidents, delays and unexpected difficulties. There was necessarily
a long period of trial and disappointment for which the sanguine partners
were not prepared. As before, the chief trouble lay in the lack of skilled
workmen, for although the few original men in Soho were remarkably
efficient, the increased demand for engines had compelled the employment of
many new hands, and the work they could perform was sadly defective. Till
this time, it is to be remembered there had been neither slide lathes,
planing machines, boring tools, nor any of the many other devices which now
ensure accuracy. All depended upon the mechanics' eye and hand, if mechanics
they could be called. Most of the new hands were inexpert and much given to
drink. Specialisation had to be resorted to—one thing for each workman, in
the fashioning of which practice made perfect. This system was introduced
with success, but the training of the men took time. Meanwhile work already
turned out and that in progress was not up to standard, and this caused
infinite trouble. One very important engine was "The Bow" for London, which
was shipped in September. The best of the experts, Joseph Harrison, was sent
to superintend its erection. Verbal instructions Watt would not depend upon;
Harrison was supplied in writing with detailed particulars covering every
possible contingency. Constant communication between them was kept up by
letter, for the engine did not work satisfactorily, and finally Watt himself
proceeded to London in November and succeeded in overcoming the defects.
Harrison's anxieties disabled him, and Boulton wrote to Dr. Fordyce, a
celebrated doctor of that day, telling him to take good care of Harrison,
"let the expense be what it will." Watt writes Boulton that Harrison must
not leave London, as "a relapse of the engine would ruin our reputation
"here and elsewhere." The Bow engine had a relapse, however, which happened
in this way. Smeaton, then the greatest of the engineers, requested
Boulton's London agent to take him to see the new engine. He carefully
examined it, called it a "very pretty engine," but thought it too
complicated a piece of machinery for practical use. There was apparently
much to be said for this opinion, for we clearly see that Watt was far in
advance of his day in mechanical requirements. Hence his serious
difficulties in the construction of the complex engine, and in finding men
capable of doing the delicately accurate work which was absolutely
indispensable for successful working.
Before leaving, Smeaton made the engineer a gift of
money, which he spent in drink. The drunken engineman let the engine run
wild, and it was thrown completely out of order. The valves—the part of the
complicated machine that required the most careful treatment—were broken. He
was dismissed, and, repairs being made, the engine worked satisfactorily at
last. In Watt's life, we meet drunkenness often as a curse of the time. We
have the satisfaction of knowing that our day is much freer from it. We have
certainly advanced in the cure of this evil, for our working-men may now be
regarded as on the whole a steady sober class, especially in America, where
intemperance has not to be reckoned with.
We see the difference between the reconstructed Kinneil
engine where Boulton's "mathematical instrument maker's" standard of
workmanship was possible "because his few trained men capable of such work
were employed." The Kinneil engine, complicated as it was in its parts,
being thus accurately reconstructed, did the work expected and more. The Bow
engines and some others of the later period, constructed by ordinary workmen
capable only of the "blacksmith's" standard of finish, proved sources of
infinite trouble.
Watt had several cases of this kind to engross his
attention, all traceable to the one root, lack of the skilled, sober
workmen, and the tools of precision which his complex (for his day, very
complex) steam engine required. The truth is that Watt's engine in one sense
was born before its time. Our class of instrument-making mechanics and
several new tools should have preceded it; then, the science of the
invention being sound, its construction would have been easy. The partners
continued working in the right direction and in the right way to create
these needful additions and were finally successful, but they found that
success brought another source of annoyance. Escaping Scylla they struck
Charybdis. So high did the reputation of their chief workmen rise, that they
were early sought after and tempted to leave their positions. Even the two
trained fitters sent to London to cure the Bow engine we have just spoken of
were offered strong inducements to take positions in Russia. Watt writes
Boulton, May 3, 1777, that he had just heard a great secret to the effect
that Carless and Webb were probably going beyond sea, $5,000 per year having
been offered for six years. They were promptly ordered home to Soho and
warrants obtained for those who had attempted to induce them to abscond
(strange laws these days!), "even though "Carless be a drunken and
comparatively useless fel"low." Consider Watt's task, compelled to attempt
the production of his new engines, complicated beyond the highest existing
standard, without proper tools and with such workmen as Carless, whom he was
glad to get and determined to keep, drunken and useless as he was.
French agents appeared and tried to bribe some of the
men to go to Paris and communicate Watt's plans to the contractor who had
undertaken to pump water from the Seine for the supply of Paris. The German
states sent emissaries for a similar purpose, and Baron Stein was specially
ordered by his government to master the secret of the Watt engine, to obtain
working plans, and bring away workmen capable of constructing it, the first
step taken being to obtain access to the engine-rooms by bribing the
workmen. All this is so positively stated by Smiles that we must assume that
he quotes from authentic records. It is clear at all events that the
attention of other nations was keenly drawn to the advent of an agency that
promised to revolutionise existing conditions. Watt himself, at a critical
part of his career (1773), as we have seen, had been tempted to accept an
offer to enter the imperial service of Russia, carrying the then munificent
salary of $,000 per annum. Boulton wrote him: "Your going to Russia staggers
me. . . "I wish to advise you for the best without regard to self, but I
find I love myself so well that I should be very sorry to have you go, and I
begin to repent sounding your trumpet at the Ambassador's."
The imperial family of Russia were then much interested
in the Soho works. The empress stayed for some time at Boulton's house, "and
a charming woman she is," writes her host. Here is a glimpse of imperial
activity and wise attention to what was going on in other lands which it was
most desirous to transplant to their own. The emperor, and no less his wife,
evidently kept their eyes open during their travels abroad. Imperial
progresses we fear are seldom devoted to such practical ends, although the
present king of Britain and his nephew the German emperor would not be blind
to such things. It is a strange coincidence that the successor of this
emperor, Tsar Nicholas; when grand duke, should have been denied admission
to Soho works. Not that he was personally objected to, but that certain
people of his suite might not be disinclined to take advantage of any new
processes discovered. So jealously were improvements guarded in these days.
Another source of care to the troubled Watt lay here.
Naturally, only a few such men had been developed as could be entrusted to
go to distant parts in charge of fellow-workmen and erect the finished
engines. A union of many qualities was necessary here. Managers of erection
had to be managers of men, by far the most complicated and delicate of all
machinery, exceeding even the Watt engine in complexity. When the rare man
was revealed, and the engine under his direction had proved itself the giant
it was reputed, ensuring profitable return upon capital invested in works
hitherto unproductive, as it often did, the sagacious owner would not
readily consent to let the engineer leave. He could well afford to offer
salary beyond the dreams of the worker, to a rider who knew his horse and to
whom the horse took so kindly. The engineer loved his engine, the engine
which he had seen grow in the shop under his direction and which he had
wholly erected.
McAndrew's Song of Steam tells the story of the
engineer's devotion to his engine, a song which only Kipling in our day
could sing. The Scotch blood of the MacDonalds was needed for that gem;
Kipling fortunately has it pure from his mother. McAndrew is homeward bound
patting his mighty engine as she whirls, and crooning over his tale:
So the McAndrews of Watt's day were loth to part from
their engines, this feeling being in the blood of true engineers. On the
other hand, just such men, in numbers far beyond the supply, were needed by
the builders, who in one sense were almost if not quite as deeply concerned
as the owners, in having proved, capable, engine managers remain in charge
of their engines, thus enhancing their reputation. Endless trouble ensued
from the lack of managing enginemen, a class which had yet to be developed,
but which was sure to arise in time through the educative policy adopted,
which was already indeed slowly producing fruit.
Meanwhile, to meet the present situation, Watt resolved
to simplify the engine, taking a step backward, which gives foundation for
Smeaton's acute criticism upon its complexity. We have seen that the working
of steam expansively was one of Watt's early inventions. Some of the new
engines were made upon this plan, which involved the adoption of some of the
most troublesome of the machinery. It was ultimately decided that to operate
this was beyond the ability of the obtainable enginemen of the day.
It must not be understood that expansion was abandoned.
On the contrary, it was again introduced by Watt at a later stage and in
better form. Since his time it has extended far beyond what he could have
ventured upon under the conditions of that day. "Yet," as Kelvin says, "the
triple and quadruple expansion engine of our day all lies in the principle
Watt had so fully developed in his day."
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