president's addeess. 167 



ing the separate condenser was patented in 1769 (No. 913) and 

 in 1775 by an act of parliament his rights were extended to 25 

 years from 22 May, 1775. 



Smiles tells us that long before Watts arrived in Birmingham, 

 the Cornish miners had been in communication with his partner, 

 Matthew Boulton, and several orders for engines for Cornwall 

 were received at the Soho Works by the end of 1776. The two 

 first ordered for Cornwall were those for Wheal Busy near Chace- 

 water and for Ting Tang near Redruth. The materials for 

 Wheal Busy were shipped in 1777, and. as much would depend 

 upon the successful working of the first engines put up in Corn- 

 wall, Watt himself went to superintend their erection. At 

 Chacewater he found himself in the midst of what was then the 

 richest mining district in the world, and upon the success of the 

 Chacewater engine the whole future of Boulton and Watt seemed 

 to depend. Writing in Axigust, 1778, Watt says " Chacewater 

 [Wheal Busy] Engine is our capital card, for should it succeed in 

 ' forking ' this mine, all doubts will then be removed." In another 

 letter written soon after he says : " By attending to the business of 

 this County [Cornwall] alone, we may at least live comfortably, 

 for I cannot siippose that less than twelve engines will be wanted 

 in two or three years, but after that very few more, as these will 

 be sufficient to get ore enough, though you cannot reckon the 

 average profits to us at above £200 per annum per engine." 



I should mention that Boulton and Watt exacted, for the use 

 of each engine, an annual payment originally calculated on the 

 saving in coal, and after much contention the owners of the 

 Chacewater engine agreed to pay £700 per annum, and a few 

 years later the adventurers of the " Wheal Virgin " mine agreed 

 to pay £2,500 a year for working five new engines. This was 

 subsequently reduced to £ 1,000 per annum. But continual efforts 

 were made by the workers of the Cornish mines to lessen the 

 sums exacted for licenses ; finally, however, one year before 

 Watt's patent expired, viz. in 1799, all Watt's rights against 

 infringers were sustained by the judges and arrears from single 

 mines exceeding £4,000 were recoverable. About 1780 Boulton 

 hired what was called a mansion at Cosgarne near Gwennap which 

 he and Watt occupied in turns as business took them to Cornwall 

 and, indeed, the partners at one time contemplated transferring 



