MA TTHE W BOUL TON. 1 6 7 



bv tying a rope to the weight, and winding the rope round the 

 axle of the wheel, and that the power gained must oe just as 

 great as the wheel was broader than the axle was thick, and 

 found it to be exactly so, by hanging one weight to a rope 

 put round the wheel, and anv ther to the rope that coiled 

 round the axle, so that in these ;wo machines it appeared very 

 plain that their advantage was as great as the space gone 

 through by the working power exceeded the space gone through 

 by weight ; and this property, I thought, must take place in a 

 wedge for cleaving wood, but then I happened not to think of 

 the screw. I then wrote a short account of the machines, and 

 sketched out figures of them \vith a pen, imagining it to be the 

 first treatise of the kind that ever was written." So early did 

 this philosopher's genius for mechanics first appear ; and from 

 such small beginnings did that knowledge spring for which he 

 was afterwards so justly distinguished. 



MATTHEW BOULTON. 



Matthew Boulton, the partner of James Watt, also desenes 

 mention here. He was born on the 3rd of September, 1728, at 

 Birmmgham, where his father carried on business as a hard- 

 wareman. 



He received an ordinary education at a school in Deritend, 

 and also acquired a knowledge of drawing and mathematics. 

 At the age of seventeen, he effected some improvements in 

 shoe-buckles, buttons, and several other articles of Birmingham 

 manufacture. 



The death of his father left him in possession of considerable 

 property ; and in order to extend his commercial operations, 

 he purchased, about 1762, a lease of Soho, near Handsworth, 

 about two miles from Birmingham, but in the county of Stafford, 



