6t ^'lograbhlcal Account of Matthezuj^outfon, Ufqi, 



ager, who has from her youth taken great delight in the art 

 of engraving on fleel. 



With the view of ftill further improving and facilitating 

 the manufaftory of fteam-engines, MelTrs. Boulton and 

 Watt have lately, in conjunftion with their fons, eftabhflied 

 a foundery at Smethvvick, a fhort dillance fromSoho. Here 

 that i^owerfLil agent is employed, as it were, to multiply 

 itfelf, and its various parts are fabricated and adapted toge- 

 ther with the fame regularity, neatnefs, and expedition, 

 which diftincuifli all the operations of their manufaftory. 

 Thofe engines are afterwards diftributed to all parts ot the 

 kino-domTjy the Birmingham canal, which communicates 

 with a wet dock belonging to the foundery. 



To fuch amazing perfedlion has the fteam-engine at length 

 been broueht, tha^t the confumption of one buthcl of New- 

 caftle coals will raife nearly fix thoufand hogflieads of water 

 ten feet high, and will do the work of ten horfes for one 

 hour. This remarkable abridgement of human labour, and 

 proportionate diminution of expenfe, are, in a great mea- 

 fure, the relult of trials made under the aufpices of Mr. 

 Boulton. But for a more complete account of thefe ma- 

 chines, their power, &c. we mud refer ihe reader to Dr. 

 Darwin's Botanic Garden*. 



It could fcarcely be expefted that envy would view with 

 indifference fuch Angular merit, and fuch unexampled fuc- 

 cefs. The inventions and improvements of MeflVs. Boulton 

 and Watt were firft imitated, and then either decried or dif- 

 puted. Reafon laboured in vain to filence the clamours of 

 injuftice, and to defeat the ftratagems of fraud. At length, 

 in the year 1792, a folemn dccifioir of parliament, and, 

 about the fame time, the concurrent opinion of the court of 

 king's bench, forbad any further encroachment. 



Whoever contemplates the merit and utility of a long life 

 devoted to fuch valuable purfuits, as we have here briefly and 

 very imperfeftly defcribed, and recollefts without emotion, 

 that the (pot whereon fo much has been done, and is ftill 

 doing ; where hundreds of women and children eafily earn 

 a comfortable fubfiftence f; where population is rapidly in- 

 creafmg, and the means of national profperity increafing in 



* Fourth edit, note xi. page 287. 



\ We have been unable to afcertain tli« number of hands employed by 

 Mr. Boulton at this time, which muft frequently vary according to the 

 changes that neccflarily take pl-^ce in the demand for different articles ;; 

 but we know, that when Mr. Boulton junior came of age, in 1791, feven 

 hundred workmen fat down to an entertainment given by his father. ,7 



pro- 



