42 WATT. 



family still higher by his own virtues. Dr. Roebuck, 

 like too many ingenious men, for the benefit of others 

 founded these Carron and Kinneil Works ; and though 

 he agreed to Mr. Watt's terms of receiving two-thirds 

 of the profit, he was obliged by pecuniary embarrass- 

 ments to retire from the partnership after a patent had 

 been obtained in 1769, and an engine of an eighteen- 

 inch cylinder had been erected at Kinneil. The suc- 

 cess of this amply proved the solidity of the invention, 

 but the inventor was obliged, for some yfears, to aban- 

 don the pursuit, and to labour in his profession of what 

 is now termed a civil engineer; but the extensive 

 operations of which Scotland soon became the scene, 

 gave a much more ample scope to his talents. He 

 was actively engaged in the surveys, and afterwards 

 in the works, for connecting by a canal the Monkland 

 coal-mines with Glasgow. He was afterwards em- 

 ployed in preparing the canal since completed by Mr. 

 Rennie, across the Isthmus of Crinan ; in the difficult, 

 and laborious investigations for the improvement of 

 the harbours of Ayr, Greenock, and Glasgow; in im- 

 proving the navigation of the Forth and the Clyde; 

 in the Campbelton Canal, and in the surveys and plans 

 preliminary to the Grand Caledonian Canal; beside 

 several bridges of great importance, as those of Ham- 

 ilton and Rutherglen. At Dr. Roebuck's Mr. Watt 

 had early received much kindness, and many valu- 

 able lessons in chemical science. He was here, too, 

 introduced to Dr. Black. 



The various works which have been mentioned 

 occupied his whole time from the disappointment 

 experienced in 1769 respecting the steam engine, of 

 which during that long interval he never despaired, 

 to the year 1774, when he acceded to the proposal of 

 Mr. Boulton, of Soho, near Birmingham, that he should 

 be taken in Dr. Roebuck's place as partner in the 

 patent, and in 1775 he settled there in this new busi- 

 ness. An extension of the patent for twenty-five 



