Watt had several cases of this kind to engross his attention, all traceable to the one root, lack of the skilled, sober workmen, and the tools of precision which his complex (for his day, very complex) steam engine required. The truth is that Watt's engine in one sense was born before its time. Our class of instrument-making mechanics and several new tools should have preceded it; then, the science of the invention being sound, its construction would have been easy. The partners continued working in the right direction and in the right way to create these needful additions and were finally successful, but they found that success brought another source of annoyance. Escaping Scylla they struck Charybdis. So high did the reputation of their chief workmen rise, that they were early sought after and tempted to leave their positions. Even the two trained fitters sent to London to cure the Bow engine we have just spoken of were offered strong inducements to take positions in Russia. Watt writes Boulton, May 3, 1777, that he had just heard a great secret to the effect that Carless and Webb were probably going beyond sea, $5,000 per year having been offered for six years. They were promptly ordered home to Soho and warrants obtained for those who had attempted to induce them to abscond (strange laws these days!), "even though Carless be a drunken and comparatively useless fellow." Consider Watt's task, compelled to attempt the production of his new engines, complicated beyond the highest existing standard, without proper tools and with such workmen as Carless, whom he was glad to get and determined to keep, drunken and useless as he was.
French agents appeared and tried to bribe some of the men to go to Paris and communicate Watt's plans to the contractor who had undertaken to pump water from the Seine for the supply of Paris. The German states sent emissaries for a similar purpose, and Baron Stein was specially ordered by his government to master the secret of the Watt engine, to obtain working plans, and bring away workmen capable of constructing it, the first step taken being to obtain access to the engine-rooms by bribing the workmen. All this is so positively stated by Smiles that we must assume that he quotes from authentic records. It is clear at all events that the attention of other nations was keenly drawn to the advent of an agency that promised to revolutionise existing conditions. Watt himself, at a critical part of his career (1773), as we have seen, had been tempted to accept an offer to enter the imperial service of Russia, carrying the then munificent salary of $5,000 per annum. Boulton wrote him: "Your going to Russia staggers me.... I wish to advise you for the best without regard to self, but I find I love myself so well that I should be very sorry to have you go, and I begin to repent sounding your trumpet at the Ambassador's."
The imperial family of Russia were then much interested in the Soho works. The empress stayed for some time at Boulton's house, "and a charming woman she is," writes her host. Here is a glimpse of imperial activity and wise attention to what was going on in other lands which it was most desirous to transplant to their own. The emperor, and no less his wife, evidently kept their eyes open during their travels abroad. Imperial progresses we fear are seldom devoted to such practical ends, although the present king of Britain and his nephew the German emperor would not be blind to such things. It is a strange coincidence that the successor of this emperor, Tsar Nicholas, when grand duke, should have been denied admission to Soho works. Not that he was personally objected to, but that certain people of his suite might not be disinclined to take advantage of any new processes discovered. So jealously were improvements guarded in these days.
Another source of care to the troubled Watt lay here. Naturally, only a few such men had been developed as could be entrusted to go to distant parts in charge of fellow-workmen and erect the finished engines. A union of many qualities was necessary here. Managers of erection had to be managers of men, by far the most complicated and delicate of all machinery, exceeding even the Watt engine in complexity. When the rare man was revealed, and the engine under his direction had proved itself the giant it was reputed, ensuring profitable return upon capital invested in works hitherto unproductive, as it often did, the sagacious owner would not readily consent to let the engineer leave. He could well afford to offer salary beyond the dreams of the worker, to a rider who knew his horse and to whom the horse took so kindly. The engineer loved his engine, the engine which he had seen grow in the shop under his direction and which he had wholly erected.
McAndrew's Song of Steam tells the story of the engineer's devotion to his engine, a song which only Kipling in our day could sing. The Scotch blood of the MacDonalds was needed for that gem; Kipling fortunately has it pure from his mother. McAndrew is homeward bound patting his mighty engine as she whirls, and crooning over his tale:
That minds me of our Viscount loon—Sir Kenneth's kin—the chap
Wi' Russia leather tennis-shoon an' spar-decked yachtin'-cap.
I showed him round last week, o'er all—an' at the last says he:
"Mister M'Andrew, don't you think steam spoils romance at sea?"
Damned ijjit! I'd been doon that morn to see what ailed the throws,
Manholin', on my back—the cranks three inches off my nose.
Romance! Those first-class passengers they like it very well,
Printed an' bound in little books; but why don't poets tell?
I'm sick of all their quirks an' turns—the loves and doves they dream—
Lord, send a man like Robbie Burns to sing the Song o' Steam!
To match wi' Scotia's noblest speech yon orchestra sublime,
Whaurto—uplifted like the Just—the tail-rods mark the time.
The crank-throws give the double-bass, the feed-pump sobs an' heaves,
An' now the main eccentrics start their quarrel on the sheaves:
Her time, her own appointed time, the rocking link-head bides,
Till—hear that note?—the rod's return whings glimmerin' through the guides.
They're all awa'! True beat, full power, the clangin' chorus goes
Clear to the tunnel where they sit, my purrin' dynamos.
Interdependence absolute, foreseen, ordained, decreed,
To work, ye'll note, at any tilt an' every rate o' speed.
Fra' skylight lift to furnace-bars, backed, bolted, braced an' stayed,
An' singin' like the Mornin' Stars for joy that they are made;
While, out o' touch o' vanity, the sweatin' thrust-block says:
"Not unto us the praise, oh man, not unto us the praise!"
Now, a' together, hear them lift their lesson—theirs an' mine:
"Law, Order, Duty an' Restraint, Obedience, Discipline!"
Mill, forge an' try-pit taught them that when roarin' they arose,
An' whiles I wonder if a soul was gied them wi' the blows.
Oh for a man to weld it then, in one trip-hammer strain,
Till even first-class passengers could tell the meanin' plain!
But no one cares except mysel' that serve an' understand
My seven-thousand horse-power here. Eh, Lord!
They're grand—they're grand!
Uplift am I? When first in store the new-made beasties stood,
Were ye cast down that breathed the Word declarin' all things good?
Not so! O' that world-liftin' joy no after-fall could vex,
Ye've left a glimmer still to cheer the Man—the Artifex!
That holds, in spite o' knock and scale, o' friction, waste an' slip,
An' by that light—now, mark my word—we'll build the Perfect Ship.
I'll never last to judge her lines or take her curve—not I.
But I ha' lived and I ha' worked. Be thanks to Thee, Most High!
So the McAndrews of Watt's day were loth to part from their engines, this feeling being in the blood of true engineers. On the other hand, just such men, in numbers far beyond the supply, were needed by the builders, who in one sense were almost if not quite as deeply concerned as the owners, in having proved, capable, engine managers remain in charge of their engines, thus enhancing their reputation. Endless trouble ensued from the lack of managing enginemen, a class which had yet to be developed, but which was sure to arise in time through the educative policy adopted, which was already indeed slowly producing fruit.
Meanwhile, to meet the present situation, Watt resolved to simplify the engine, taking a step backward, which gives foundation for Smeaton's acute criticism upon its complexity. We have seen that the working of steam expansively was one of Watt's early inventions. Some of the new engines were made upon this plan, which involved the adoption of some of the most troublesome of the machinery. It was ultimately decided that to operate this was beyond the ability of the obtainable enginemen of the day.
It must not be understood that expansion was abandoned. On the contrary, it was again introduced by Watt at a later stage and in better form. Since his time it has extended far beyond what he could have ventured upon under the conditions of that day. "Yet," as Kelvin says, "the triple and quadruple expansion engine of our day all lies in the principle Watt had so fully developed in his day."
[1] If those in London had only listened to Franklin and taken his advice when he pleaded for British liberties for British subjects in America! It is refreshing to read in our day how completely the view regarding colonies has changed in Britain. These are now pronounced "Independent nations, free to go or stay in the empire, as they choose," the very surest way to prolong the connection. This is true statesmanship. Being free, the chains become decorations and cease to chafe the wearer, unless great growth comes, when the colony must at its maturity perforce either merge with the motherland under one joint government or become a free and independent nation, giving her sons a country of their own for which to live, and, if necessary, to die.