372 WATT. 



man of profound scientific knowledge, and of daring 

 spirit as a speculator. He had just founded the 

 Carron Iron Works, not far from Glasgow, and was 

 lessee, under the Hamilton family, of the Kinneil 

 Coal Works. He was the grandfather of the present 

 Member for Bath, who, descended from him on the 

 one side, and from the Tickells* on the other, may be 

 said to unite in himself rare claims to hereditary dis- 

 tinction ; but who is probably destined to exalt the 

 name of his family still higher by his own virtues. 

 Dr. Roebuck, like too many ingenious men, founded 

 these Carron and Kinneil Works for the benefit of 

 others ; and though he agreed to Mr. Watt's terms 

 of receiving two thirds of the profit, he was obliged by 

 pecuniary embarrassments to retire from the partner- 

 ship after a patent had been obtained in 1769, and an 

 engine of an eighteen-inch cylinder had been erected 

 at Kinneil. The success of this amply proved the 

 solidity of the invention, but the inventor was obliged, 

 for some years, to abandon 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 employed in preparing the canal 

 since completed by Mr. Rennie, across the Isthmus of 



. * His maternal grandfather was the author of l Anticipation,' 

 and grandson of Addison's friend, the poet. 



