46 WATT. 



years of his patent right in courts of justice, and in 

 every instance prevailed; but he found the pirates 

 pennyless, the costs were to be paid, and he never 

 gained one shilling by an invention which is, I believe, 

 more universally used all over Europe than any other, 

 except, perhaps, Argand's lamp. That invention was 

 defeated in court, in consequence of the imperfect 

 state of the law in those days, and of the absurd lean- 

 ing of the Judges against all patentees ; their Lordships 

 displaying the utmost ingenuity in discovering flaws, 

 and calling into action all the resources of legal astute- 

 ness in grinding, as they went on, new law for the defeat 

 of the inventor. Of this, one instance only needs be 

 given. If a specification contained ten good matters 

 or processes, and by oversight one was either not 

 original, or in any other respect did not answer the 

 description given,* the courts held the patent wholly 

 void, and not merely void for the erroneously described 

 part, upon the subtle and senseless ground that the 

 Crown had been deceived in the grant. 



Mr. Watt had to struggle against this state of the 

 law as well as against the shameless frauds, the con- 

 spiracies of dishonest, unprincipled men. During seven 

 years and upwards he was condemned to lead the life 

 of litigation ; during seven years his genius was with- 

 drawn from his own pursuits to become what he, 

 no doubt, had, unfortunately for society, full time to 

 make himself, an accomplished and learned lawyer; 

 and it was not till five and thirty years after his 

 invention had been made, that he was finally freed by 

 a decision of the Court of King's Bench, in 1799, from 

 a durance which lasted all the term of his patent, 

 after all interest in the subject had expired by efflux 

 of time. It was proved before a committee of the 

 House of Commons in 1829, that had his statutory 



* Turner v. Winter, 6 T. E. ; Rex v. Fuller, 3 B. and A. My Acts 

 of 1835 and 1840 have in great part remedied these sad defects in the 

 law ; others still remain. 



