WATT. 



39: 



ferred less important benefits on mankind than the 

 inventor of the steam engine." 



In fact, almost every thing valuable in our pre- 

 sent engines, except the mere principle of creating 

 power by condensing steam, may be regarded as the 

 invention of Mr Watt, or as naturally resulting 

 from it. During his residence at Glasgow, about 

 1764, a model of the steam engine then in use, em- 

 ployed to instruct the students at College, was put 

 into his hands to be repaired. Steam, it is well 

 known, can hardly be prevented from condensing 

 into water, in any vessel that is not very nearly of 

 the same temperature as the steam itself. When 

 this model was put into the hands of Mr Watt, the 

 general practice was, to condense the steam in the 

 same cylinder in which the piston works ; but this 

 cylinder being of cast iron, was, at every stroke, 

 cooled nearly down to the temperature of the wa- 

 ter employed to condense the steam ; and the con- 

 sequence was, that a great quantity of heat was 

 wasted in again giving the cylinder the necessary 

 temperature. 



Mr Watt, after many trials, fell on a plan of sav- 

 ing all this waste of heat and fuel, by causing the 

 steam to pass into a separate vessel for condensa- 

 tion, so that the iron cylinder in which the rare- 

 fied steam was admitted, to cause the next stroke 

 of the engine, was never cooled at all, and no heat 

 wasted in again bringing it to a proper temperature. 

 This was the first great improvement made by Air 

 Watt, and he calculated that it saved nearly two- 

 thirds of the quantity of steam generated, and fuel 

 consumed. In 1769, he took out a patent for this 

 improvement, which he styled " A method of less- 

 ening the consumption of fuel and steam in steam 

 engines ;" and sought to introduce it into use for 

 draining mines at that time, and long after, the 

 only purpose for which steam engines were em- 

 ployed. 



A conjunction, however, of many favourable 

 circumstances was necessary to ensure success to 

 his schemes. Among these was, his finding and 

 associating himself with Mr Boulton, a gentleman 

 of a most enterprising spirit, in love with great 

 and difficult undertakings, with money at com- 

 mand, and who had some years before established 

 his manufactory near Birmingham, upon a scale 

 as unrivalled for extent and elegance, as for the 

 perfection and variety of the processes carried 

 on. 



They began by erecting an engine at Soho, and 

 showing it to all those concerned in mining. Be- 

 ing fully convinced of the utility and benefit of the 

 invention, they went so far as to erect engines on 

 several mines at their own expense, for which they 

 were to be paid in the proportion of one-third of 

 the fuel saved. 



Up to 1780, the use of the steam engine was 

 confined to raising water, and when intended to 

 give motion to mill works, the water raised was 

 made to turn an overshot wheel in the ordinary 

 way. This being, however, attended with a great 

 loss of power, Mr Watt endeavoured to apply di- 

 rectly the up-and-down movement of the steam 

 engine, in straight lines to wheels and mill work. 

 There was, at that time, several examples of such 

 an application of a movement in straight lines ; for 

 example, the common spinning wheel, having a heavy 

 broad rim which acts as a fly, is turned round by 

 means of a perpendicular movement given by the 

 foot, and the application of a crank. It was only 

 necessary to copy this, and Mr Watt's wish would 



have been gratified. The most simple method is 

 not, however, in general, that which is first thought 

 of, and Mr Watt, in fact, proposed what is now 

 regarded as a very complex means of effecting his 

 wish. He was, however, prevented from carrying 

 his project into execution, by a workman employed 

 to make the model, communicating it to a Mr Ri- 

 cards of Birmingham, who took out a patent for it 

 in his own name, and thus deprived Mr Watt of 

 the use of his own invention. He was obliged, 

 therefore, to have once more recourse to his own 

 mind, and succeeded in effecting the same object, 

 by a means difficult to describe, but which an- 

 swered perfectly well, and is known by the name 

 of the sun and planet motion. Successive im- 

 provements, however, each of which cost a vast 

 deal of trouble and expense, led to the introduction 

 of more simple methods, till at length the move- 

 ment of the steam engine backwards and forwards 

 in straight lines, was converted into a rotatory 

 movement, by a means precisely similar to that 

 which turns a common spinning-wheel round by 

 the foot. 



The steam engine differs from all other species 

 of machinery, in this, that they are but the means 

 of applying power which already exists, but this 

 creates the power it applies ; and we have thus a 

 double means of controlling it. We can make it 

 greater or less at our pleasure, while in all other 

 machines, we can only direct the application of 

 power which already exists, and may be said to run 

 to waste when not employed by man. By Mr 

 Watt's admirable inventions, we now not only 

 create power, when, and where we please, but we 

 are enabled to apply it in any manner. His second 

 great invention, or rather, we should say, applica- 

 tion of very old inventions, was the immediate 

 cause of the extensive employment of steam engines, 

 so that at this moment, independent of those things 

 which no other power could perform, it is probable 

 that steam does more work than is equal to the 

 unassisted labour of 3,000,000 of men. The earliest 

 of Mr Watt's steam engines, giving a rotatory 

 movement, were erected in 1784, one for Mr Wliit- 

 bread's brewhouse, and one at the Albion mills, 

 in which Messrs Watt and Boulton were part- 

 ners. 



Mr Watt also invented or improved a variety of 

 other instruments. To him, Dr Beddoes was in- 

 debted for many of those different machines for the 

 application of factitious airs as medicine, of which 

 an account is published in that gentleman's pamph- 

 let on Pneumatic Medicine. He also invented a 

 machine for copying letters and other writings, by 

 means of a thin moist paper and two rollers, which 

 saves time, labour, and money ; and ensures accu- 

 racy, despatch, and secrecy. Like most other in- 

 genious men, he was exposed to considerable ex- 

 pense, trouble, and injury, by having his inventions 

 pirated ; but of this he never took any other notice, 

 than to protect his rights and the interest of his 

 family and children, by having recourse to the laws 

 of his country. Such was the influence of his mild 

 character and perfect fairness and liberality, that 

 all men of learning and science who were at all 

 acquainted with him, loved him as a friend ; even 

 pretenders to these accomplishments were subdued 

 by his plain sincerity, so that he disarmed envy 

 itself. " Perhaps," says Lord Jeffrey, from whom 

 we have already quoted, " no individual of his 

 age possessed so much and such varied information 

 had read so much, or remembered what he had 



