6o Biographical Account t?/ Mattbetif Boullon, Efq. 



ton, whofe performances in ftained glafs have fince intro- 

 duced bis name to the public. 



The utniolt power of the water-mill, which Mr. Boulton 

 had hitherto employed, fell infinitely fliort, even with the 

 aid of horfes, of that immenfe force which was foon found 

 necetTarj' to the completion of his deligns. Recourfe was 

 therefore had, about the year 1767, to that cheJ-cVceuvre of 

 human ingenuity, the lieam engine. In fpeaking of that 

 wonderful machine, we fliall adopt the animated language of 

 a late excellent Review : — The fteam engine, approaching to 

 the nature of a perpfMunm mobile, or rather an anmat, is 

 incapable of laflitude or fenfation, produces coals, works 

 metals, moves machines, and is certainly the nobleft drudge 

 that was ever employed by the hand of art. Thus we " put 

 a hook in the nofe of the Leviathan :" thus we " play with 

 him as a child, and take him for a fervant for ever *;" thus 

 *' we fubdue nature^ and derive aid and comfort from the 

 elements of earthquakes t." 



The fird engine that Mr. Boulton conflrufted was on 

 M.Savary's plan,of which the reader will find one of the moft 

 fatisfadory accounts in Profefibr Bradlev's " New Improve- 

 ments of Planting and Gardening^," 8cc. But the machine 

 was yet, as it were, in its infancy, and by no means an- 

 fwered Mr. Boulton's expectations. In the year 1769 Mr. 

 James Watt, of Glafgow, obtained a patent for fuch a pro- 

 digious improvement of it, that Mr. Boulton immediately 

 fought his acquaintance, and induced him to fettle at Soho. 

 At this place, the facility of its application to a variety of 

 concerns, wherein great force was requifite, foon manifefted 

 its fuperior utility and vaft advantages to the public : Parlia- 

 ment, therefore, in 1775, cheerfully granted a prolongation 

 of Mr. Watt's patent for twenty- five ^years. A partnerfliip 

 now commenced between Meflrs. Boulton and Watt; and a 

 manufaftory of fteam-engines, on their improved plan, was 

 eftabliflied at Soho, which fiill fupplies the chief mines and 

 manufaftories throughout the kingdom. 



Aided by fuch talents, and commanding fuch unlimited 

 mechanical powers. Mr. Boulton's views foon expanded, and 

 Soho began to exhibit funptoms of the extraordinary advan- 

 tages it had acquired. The art of coining had longltoodin 

 need of iiinplitlcation and arrangement ; ^and to this art Mr. 

 Boulton no fnorer turned his attention, than, about the 

 year 1788, he erefted a coining-mill on an improved plan^, 



* Job, xli. i — 4., \ Analytical Review, Peb. I7c>7, p, 220. 

 J Seventh edit." p. 315. 



and 



