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. 
