of James Watt some 200 years later. Watt was 

 responsible for initiating profound changes in me- 

 chanical technology, but it should be recognized that 

 the mechanic arts had, through centuries of slow 

 development, reached the stage where his genius 

 could flourish. The knowledge and ability to provide 

 the materials and tools necessary for Watt's researches 

 were at hand, and through the optimism and patient 

 encouragement of his partner, Matthew Boulton, 

 they were placed at his disposal. 



Watt's genius was nowhere more evident than in his 

 synthesis of linkages. An essential ingredient in the 

 success of Watt's linkages, however, was his partner's 

 appreciation of the entirely new order of refinement 

 that they called for. Matthew Boulton, who had been 

 a successful manufacturer of buttons and metal 

 novelties long before his partnership with Watt was 

 formed, had recognized at once the need for care in 

 the building of Watt's steam engine. On February 

 7, 1769, he had written Watt: ^ "I presumed that 



D 



-^ 



Figure 2. — Slider-crank mechanism 

 of Leonardo da Vinci (i 452-1 519), 

 redrawn from his manuscript note- 

 books. A frame saw is depicted at 

 the lower end of the guides. From 

 Theodor Beck, Beitrdge zur Geschichte 

 des Maschinenbaues (Berlin, 1899, p. 

 323)- 



- Henry W. Dickinson, James Watt, Crajtsman & Engineer, 

 Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1936, pp. 52-53. 



Figure 3. — Blowing engine by Vanuccio Bir- 

 inguccio, about 1 540, showing coversion of 

 motion of the waterwheel shaft fromi rotation 

 to oscillation. From Theodor Beck, Beitrdge zur 

 Geschichte des Maschinenbaues (Berlin, 1899 

 p. 120). 



188 



BULLETIN 228: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



