Chapter 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--Chacewater engine finished--Its
successful working--Watt’s embarrassments and financial
difficulties--Boulton’s courage and perseverance, and
Fothergill’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 Birmingham--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 Cornwall--His
mode of dealing with the captains--Watt’s altercations with the
Cornishmen--His reliance on Boulton--Altercation with
Trevithick 230–260

CHAPTER 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 melancholy--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

CHAPTER 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 introduced--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

CHAPTER XVI.

Financial position of the firm--Rotary engines for mills--Boulton’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 Dundonald--His extensive correspondence--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 317–341

CHAPTER 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

CHAPTER 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 speculations 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

CHAPTER 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 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 386–399