394 JAMES WATT. 
of condensing steam in a vessel separate from the cylin- 
der in which the mechanical action goes on—was in 
1765. ‘Two years elapsed without his scarcely making 
an effort to apply it on a large scale. His friends at last 
put him in communication with Dr. Roebuck, founder of 
the large works at Carron, still celebrated at the present 
day. ‘The engineer and the man of projects enter into 
partnership ; Watt cedes two thirds of his patent to him. 
An engine is constructed on the new principles: it con- 
firms all the expectations of theory ; its success is com- 
plete. But in the interim, Dr. Roebuck’s affairs receive 
various checks. Watt’s invention would undoubtedly 
have restored them: it would have sufficed to borrow 
money; but our associate felt more inclined to give up 
his discovery and change his business. In 1767, while 
Smeaton was carrying on some triangulations dnd level- 
lings between the two rivers of the Forth and the Clyde, 
forerunners of the gigantic works of which that part of 
Scotland was to be the theatre, we find Watt occupied 
with similar operations along a rival line crossing the 
Lomond passage. Later, he draws the plan of a canal 
that was to bring coals from Monkland to Glasgow, and 
superintends the execution of it. Several projects of a 
similar nature, and, among others, that of a navigable 
canal across the Isthmus of Crinan, which Mr. Rennie 
afterwards finished; some deep studies on certain im- 
provements in the ports of Ayr, Glasgow, and Greenock ;— 
the construction of the Hamilton and Rutherglen bridges ; 
surveys of the ground through which the celebrated Cale- 
donian Canal was to pass, occupied our associate up to 
the end of 1773. Without wishing at all to diminish the 
merit of these enterprises, I may be permitted to say that 
their interest and importance was chiefly local, and to 
