THE LUNAR SOCIETY. 425 



thor of the Zoonomia. and of a celebrated poem entitled 

 The Loves of the Plants; Withering, a distinguished 

 physician and botanist ; Keir, a chemist well known by 

 his notes to his translation of Macquer, and by an in- 

 teresting memoir on the crystallization of glass ; Galton , 

 author of an elementary treatise on Ornithology ; Edge- 

 worth, author of various works justly appreciated, and 

 father of the so celebrated Maria. These learned men 

 soon became friends of the illustrious mechanic, and most 

 of them formed, with him and Boulton, an association 

 called the Lunar Society. Such a whimsical appellation 

 gave rise to many mistakes : it only meant that they met 

 on the evening of full moon, a time of the month chosen 

 by preference, in order that the members might see their 

 way home. 



Each sitting of the Lunar Society was, for Watt, a 

 fresh opportunity for showing the remarkable fecundity 

 of invention with which Nature had endowed him. 

 Darwin said one day to his companions, "I have im- 

 agined a certain double pen, a pen with two beaks, by 

 the aid of which we may write every thing in duplicate ; 

 and thus at once give the original and the copy of a 

 letter." Watt almost immediately replied : " I hope to 

 find a better solution of the problem. I will work out 

 my ideas to-night, and will communicate them to you to- 

 morrow." The next day the copying press was invented, 

 and even a small model allowed already of an opinion 

 being formed of its effects. This instrument, so useful 

 and so generally adopted in all the English counting- 

 houses, has recently received some modifications, an hon- 

 our claimed by many workmen ; but I can assert that the 

 present form was actually described and drawn in 1780, 

 in the patent of our associate. 



