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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[October 



" James," said Mrs. Muirhead to her nephew one day, " I never saw a 

 more idle lad than yourself; take a book and employ yourself use- 

 fully. It is more than an hour since you have spoken a single word. 

 Do you know what you have been doing all this while? You have 

 been taking off and putting on the lid of the tea-pot; you have put the 

 steam which goes from it, sometimes in a saucer and sometimes in a 

 silver spoon ; you have amused yourself with examining, uniting toge- 

 ther, and laying hold of the drops, which the condensation of the steam 

 formed on the surface of the porcelain or polished metal ; is it not a 

 shame to employ your time thus ?" 



In 1750, perhaps, each of us, like Mrs. Muirhead, would have used the 

 same language ; but the world has progres.«ed, and our knowledge has 

 increased. Thus, when, as I shall presently explain, the principal disco- 

 very of our colleague consisted of a particular means of converting steam 

 into water, the object of the reproaches of Mrs. Muirhead will present 

 himself before us under a different aspect, and little James before the tea- 

 pot, will be the great engineer preluding the discoveries which were to 

 immortalise him ; whilst every one will, undoubtedly, remark that the 

 words, condensation of steam, should so naturally be found in the history 

 of the childhood of Watt. Besides, although I may be wrong as to the 

 singularity of the anecdote, it may not be less worthy of preservation. 

 When the occasion presents itself, let us prove to youth, that Newton 

 was barely modest, when, to satisfy the curiosity of a great personage, 

 who desired to know how attraction had been discovered, he replied— By 

 thinking of it always ! Let us shew to all, in the simple words of the 

 immortal author of natural philosophy, the principal secret of men of^ 

 genius. 



The taste for anecdote, which our colleague, for more than half a cen- 

 tury, diffused with so much grace amongtbose by whom he was surrounded, 

 shewed itself at an early age. The proof of it will be found in some lines 

 which I extract as a translation, from an unpublished note, written in 

 1798, by Mrs. Marion Campbell, a cousin, and a companion from child- 

 hood, of the celebrated engineer.* 



" In a journey to Glasgow, Mrs. Watt gave her young son, James, in 

 charge to one of her friends. A few weeks after she came back to see 

 him, but certainly without thinking of the singular reception which 

 awaited her. Madam, said this friend to her as soon as she perceived 

 her, you must send James back tjuickly to Greenock. I can no longer 

 bear this state of excitement in which he puts me. I am harrassed tor 

 want of sleep. Eveiy night, when the usual hour of bed time for ray 

 family is at hand. your son contrives, skilfully, to raise some discussion, 

 in which he ah\-ays finds means to introduce a tale which necessarily 

 beget others. Tliese tales, either pathetic or comic, are so charming 

 and interesting, and my whole family listens to them so intently, that you 

 might hear a fly buzz. Thus hour follows hour without our perceiving 

 it, but on the moiTow I am almost dying with fatigue ; do. Madam, take 

 back your child with you." 



James Watt had a younger brother, John,+ who, by determining to 

 follow the career of his father, left bini, after the Scotch custom, the 

 choice of his avocation ; but this avocation was difficult to find out, for 

 the young student occupied himself in all with equal success. The 

 banks of Loch Lomond, already so celebrated by its connexion with 

 the historian Buchanan, and with the illustrious inventor of loga- 

 rithms, developed his taste for botany. His rambles upon different Scotch 

 mountains, caused him to perceive that the inert crust of the globe is 

 not less worthy of attention, and he became a mineralogist. James, in 

 his frequent encounters with the poor inhabitants of these picturesque 

 countries, deciphered their local traditions, their popular ballads, and 

 their wild prejudices. When his ill-health detained him at home, che- 

 mistry became the principal object of his experiments. The Elements of 

 Natural Philosophy, by 's Gravesande, also initiated him into the thou- 

 sand wonders of general physic. Indeed, like all sick persons, he devoured 

 all the medical and surgical works he could procure. These latter 

 sciences had so excited the curiosity of the scholar, that he was one day 

 discovered carry-ing off to his chamber for dissection, the head of a child 

 which had fallen the victim of some unknown malady. 



But Watt did not design himself either for botany or mineralogy, for 

 letters, poetry, or chemistry, neither for physics, medicine, or surgery, 

 although he was so well versed in each of these classes of study. In 

 1755 he went to London, and placed himself under Mr. John Morgan, 

 mathematical and marine instrument maker, in Finch-lane, Cornliill. 

 The man who was to cover England with machines, by the side of which, 

 as to their powers, the ancient and colossal machine of Marly would be 

 but a pigmy, entered on his industrious career, by making, with his own 

 hands, subtle, delicate, and frail instruments; those small, but admirable 

 reflecting sextants, to which the nautica an is so much indebted for its 

 progress. 



Watt only remained a year with Mr. Morgan, and returned to Glasgow, 

 where rather serious difficulties awaited him. Relying upon their ancient 



• I am indebted f. r this curious dociimeDt to my friend, Mr. James Walt, of Solio. 

 TlianliS to Uie profound veneration wliieli he lias preserved for Uie memory ol liis 

 illustrious father; thanks to the inexhaustible complaisance with which he has re- 

 ceived all my demands, 1 have been able to avoid several inaccuracies which 

 glided into the most esteemed biographies, and from which even I, deceived by verbal 

 communications, too lightly received, did not, at lirst, know how to guard myselt. — 

 Note by At. Araffo. 



+ He died in 1762, onboard one of his father's ships, ou the passage from Greenock 

 to America, at the age of 23 years. 



privileges, the incorporated trades looked upon the young artist from 

 London as an intruder, and obstinately denied him the right of opening 

 any kind of workshop. Every means of reconciliation having failed, the 

 University of Glasgow interposed, granted to young Watt a small place 

 within their own precincts, allowed him to establish a shop, and honoured 

 him with the title of their mathematical instrument maker. Some small 

 instruments, of this date, of exquisite workmanship, made entirely by the 

 hand of Watt, are still existing. I will add, that his son recently shewed 

 me the first sketches of the steam engine, which are truly remarkable for 

 their fineness, their strength, and precision of stroke. It was not, there- 

 fore, without reason, whatever people may say, that Watt spoke with 

 complacency of his manual skill. Perhaps you will think that I am over 

 scrupulous in claiming a merit for our colleague, which can add so little 

 to his glory. But, I will admit, that I never hear the pedantic enumera- 

 tion of qualities of w'hich superior men have been despoiled, without 

 remembering that bad General of the age of Louis XVI., who always 

 carried his right shoulder very high, because Prince Eugene, of Savoy, 

 was a little hump-backed, and who did not think himself bound to en- 

 deavour to carry the likeness farther. 



Watt had hardly attained his twenty-first year, when the University of 

 Glasgow attached him to the University. He had for his patrons, Adam 

 Smith, the author of the famous work on the Wealth of Nations ; 

 Black, whose discoveries concerning latent heat and carbonate of lime, 

 gave him a distinguished rank among the first chemists of the eighteenth 

 century; and Robert Simson, the celebrated lestorer of the most impor- 

 tant treatises of the ancient geometricians. These eminent persons at 

 first, thought they had only saved from the trickeries of cot potations, 

 a skilful and zealous workman of mild disposition ; but they were not 

 slow in discovering the man of genius, nor in shewing him the strongest 

 friendship. The students of the university considered it an honour to be 

 admitted to the intimacy of Watt. Indeed, his shop ! yes ! a shop ! 

 became a sort of academy, where all the illustrious men of Glasgow 

 attended, to discuss the most delicate questions of art, science, and 

 literature. In truth, I should not dare to tell you what part the young 

 woikman, only 21 years of age, took in these learned meetings, if I could 

 not rely upon an anonymous article of one of the most celebrated com- 

 pilers of the Encyclopedia Britannica. 



" Although still a student, said Professor Robison, " I had the vanity 

 to think myself sufficiently advanced in my favourite studies of mecha- 

 nics and physics, when I was presented to Watt. So that I was not a 

 little mortified to see to what an extent the young workman was my 

 superior. In the University, when any difficulty stopped us of whatever 

 kind, we ran to our workman. Once excited, every subject became for 

 him a matter of laborious study and new discoveries. He never gave up 

 till he had quite solved the proposed question, whether he reduced it to 

 nothing, or whether he drew from it some clear and substantial result. 

 Once the solution seemed to require the reading of Leupold's work, the 

 Theatrum Machinarum : Watt immediately learned German. Under 

 other circumstances, and for a similar purpose, he acquired Italian. The 

 artless simplicity of the young mechanic immediately gained the good 

 will of all who .addressed him, and, although I have lived some time in 

 the world, 1 am obliged to declare, that I could not cite a second example 

 of an attachment so sincere, and so general shown towards any person of 

 incontestible superiority. It is true, that this superiority was veiled by 

 the most amiable candour, and that it was united with a firm desire to 

 acknowledge liberally the merit of every one. Watt, even delighted in 

 endowing the inventive disposition of his friends with things which fre- 

 quently were but bis own ideas, jiresented under another form. I have." 

 says Robison, " the greater right to insist upon this rare mental disposi- 

 tion, as I have personally experienced its effects.'' 



You will have to decide, if it were not as honourable to pronounce 

 these last words, as to have caused them to be pronounced. 



Studies so serious, and so various, to which the young Glasgow artisan 

 was continually compelled, by the circumstances of his singular position, 

 did not hinder the routine of the shop. The latter he executed by day ; 

 while night was sacred to theoretical reseat ch. Watt, tiusting in the 

 resources of his imagination, seemed to delight in the most difficult un, 

 dertakings, and in those for which it might have been supposed that he 

 was least calculated. Will it be believed that he undertook to build an 

 organ, he, who was so totally insensible to the charms of music, that he 

 could never even contrive to distinguish one note from another ; for 

 example, ut from fa? Nevertheless he succeded in the attempt. It 

 cannot either be denied that the new instrument exhibited some cajiital 

 improvements in the mechanical part, in the regulators, in the manner of 

 appreciating the strength of the wind ; but yott will be surprised when I 

 inform you that its harmonical qualities were not less remarkable, iind 

 that they charmed even professetl musicians. Watt solved an important 

 part of the problem : he found out the medium assigned by an artist, in 

 explanations of the phenomenon of pulsations; at that time little appre- 

 ciated, and of which he could get no intormation but in the profound, but 

 very obscure work, of Doctor Robert Smith, of Cambr.dge. 



HisTonY OF THE Steam Engine. 



1 have now come to the most brilliant period of the life of Watt, and 



also. I fear, to the most difficult part of my task. The immense im- 



))ortancc of the inventions I am about to describe to you does not admit 



of a doubt. Unfortunately, perhaps, I shall not be able to make them 



