426 Mr. John Taylor on ihe Duty of 



tive results which merited examination. It has been preferred 

 to suppose all kinds of error in the mode of computation or 

 in the data rather than admit their consequences ; and this 

 I have reason to think has been done very often where a little 

 inquiry would have produced a satisfactory explanation. 



I published my paper in the " Records of Mining," with a 

 view to promote such inquiry : I traced the history of the duty 

 of steam-engines from the earliest period of their application; 

 I endeavoured to show that the standard of comparison, as 

 between one pumping-engine and another, was a fair one, not- 

 withstanding some unimportant imperfections ; and that it was 

 to this standard that Messrs. Boulton and Watt appealed for 

 proof of the superiority of their engines when engaged in legal 

 disputes respecting their patent rights, or in claiming their 

 allowance for the use of them. 



I attempted to correct a misapprehension that I believed to 

 exist as to the purpose of the monthly reports of Duty of En- 

 gines in Cornwall, and as to the parties by whom they are 

 caused to be made. I had often heard, and I continue to hear, 

 that they are published by persons concerned in making en- 

 gines, and that the object might therefore be to exaggerate 

 the value of particular improvements: it has sometimes on the 

 other hand been stated, that they are carelessly or ignorantly 

 done. I showed, in reply to this, that these reports are pro- 

 cured by the adventurers in the Cornish mines, who use en- 

 gines so extensively as to render them especially concerned 

 in finding out who make them the best, and whose only par- 

 tiality that I know of, to any construction of an engine is, to 

 that which will do their work at the least expense. The hi- 

 story of the steam-engine will exhibit the same fact ; and hence 

 it has been that Newcomen, Smeaton, Watt, Bull, Horn- 

 blower, Woolf, Grose, and others, have found in Cornwall the 

 principal field for their first efforts. 



The adventurers in deep mines in Cornwall may well desire 

 to know accurately the value of the different applications of 

 steam power ; their interest in that question is perhaps greater 

 than that of any other individuals. One concern with which 

 I am connected, employs 8 engines for drawing watei', of 

 which 4 have cylinders of 90 inches in diameter; the monthly 

 consumption of coal is about 14,000 bushels, and the ex- 

 penses near 12,000/. a-year. But if we take all the mines in 

 the county into consideration, there will appear abundance of 

 reason for great interest in this matter ; and the fact being so, 

 how absurd would it be to permit any mode of self-deceit! and 

 how much more absurd to pay liberally for information, on 

 which, according to some, no reliance is to be placed! 



But 



