We must not lose sight of Murdoch. In addition to his rare qualities, he possessed mechanical genius. He was the inventor of lighting by gas, and it was he who made the first model of a locomotive. There was no emergency with engines, no accident, no blunder, but Murdoch was called in. We read with surprise that his wages even in 1780 were only five dollars per week. He then modestly asked for an advance, but this was not given. A present of one hundred dollars, however, was made to him in recognition of his unusual services. Probably the explanation of the failure to increase his wages at the time was that, owing to the condition of the business, no rise in wages could be made to one which would involve an advance to others. Murdoch remained loyal to the firm, however, although invited into partnership by another. Afterward he received due reward. He had always a strong aversion to partnership, no doubt well founded in this case, for during many years failure seemed almost as likely as success. Watt has much to say in his letters about "William" (Murdoch), who, more than anyone, relieved him from trouble.[2]
The bargainings with mine-owners brought on intense heartaches and broke Watt down completely. Boulton had to go to him again in Cornwall in the autumn of 1779, and as usual succeeded in adjusting many disputes by wise compromises with the grasping owners which Watt's strict sense of justice had denied. Many of these had paid no royalties for years, others disputed Watt's unerring register of fuel consumption (another of his most ingenious inventions now in general use for many purposes), a more heinous offense in his eyes than that of non-payment. "The rascality of man," he writes, "is almost beyond belief." He never was more despondent or more irritable than now. No one was better aware of his weakness than himself. In short, his heartaches and nervousness unfitted him for business. As usual, he attributed his discouragement chiefly to his financial obligations. The firm was as hard pressed as ever. Indeed a new source of danger had developed. Fothergill's affairs became involved, and had it not been for Boulton's capital and credit, the firm of Boulton and Fothergill could not have maintained payment. This had caused a drain upon their resources. Boulton sold the estate which had come to him by his wife, and the greater part of his father's property, and mortgaged the remainder. It is evident that the great captain had taken in hand far too many enterprises. Probably he had not heard the new doctrine: "Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket." He had even ventured considerable sums in blockade running during the American Revolutionary War. It was not without good reason, therefore, that the more cautious Scot addressed to him so many pathetic letters: "I beg of you to attend to these money matters. I cannot rest in my bed until they have some determinate form." Watt's inexperience in money matters caused apprehensions of ruin to arise whenever financial measures were discussed. He was at this time utterly wretched, and Mrs. Watt at last became anxious, long and bravely as she had hitherto borne up and striven to dispel her husband's fears. Never before had she ventured to speak to Boulton upon the subject. She now broke the silence and wrote him in Cornwall a touching letter, stating that her husband's health and spirits had become much worse since Boulton had left Soho. "I know there are several things that so prey upon his mind as to render him perfectly miserable. They never cross his mind, but he is rendered unfit to do anything for a long time." She describes these financial demons that torment him and begs that her writing should not be told to Watt, as it might only add to his troubles. The appeal brings Mrs. Watt before us in a most engaging light.
A study of the problem was made upon Boulton's return and he agreed to close two departments of the business which were so far unprofitable, thus entering upon the right path. The engine having proved itself indispensable, the demand for it was becoming great and pressing from various countries. To concentrate upon its manufacture was obviously the true policy. The great captain's enterprise was not often expended upon failures, and it is with pleasure we find that among the profitable branches which Boulton had encouraged Watt in introducing at Soho, was the copying-press, which Watt invented in 1778, and which we use to this day. In July of that year he writes Dr. Black that he has "lately discovered a method of copying writing instantaneously, provided it has been written within twenty-four hours. I send you a specimen and will impart the secret if it will be of any use to you. It enables me to copy all my business letters." He kept this secret for two years, and in May, 1780, secured a patent after he had completed details of the press and experimented with the ink. One hundred and fifty were made and sold. Thirty of these went abroad. It steadily made its way. Watt, writing some thirty years later, said it had proved so useful to him that it was well worth all the trouble of perfecting it, even if it brought no profit.
We think of Watt and the steam engine appears. Let us however note the unobtrusive little copying-press on the table at his side. Extremes meet here. It would be difficult to name an invention more universally used, in all offices where man labors in any field of activity. In the list of modest inventions of greatest usefulness, the modern copying-press must take high rank, and this we owe entirely to Watt.
Of the same period as the copying-machine is his invention of a drying-machine for cloth, consisting of three cylinders of copper over which the cloth must turn over and under while cylinders are filled with steam, the cloth to be alternately wound off and on the two wooden rollers, by which means it will pass over three cylinders in succession. This machine was erected for Watt's father-in-law, Mr. MacGregor in Glasgow, by an ingenious mechanic, John Gardiner, often employed by Watt in earlier years. "This I apprehend," he writes to David Brewster in 1814, "to be the original from which such machines were made." When we consider the extent to which such steam drying-machines are used in our day, our estimate of the credit due to Watt cannot be small. The drying-machine is no unfit companion to the copying-machine.
Watt revisited Cornwall in 1781 to make an inspection of all the engines. Much he found needing attention and improvement. His evenings were spent designing "road steam-carriages." This was before the day of railroads, and the carriages were to be driven by steam over the ordinary coach roads. He filled a quarto drawing-book with different plans for these, and covered the idea in one of his patent specifications. Boulton suggested in 1781 that the idea of rotary motion should be developed, which Watt had from the first regarded as of prime importance. It was for this he had invented his original wheel engine, and in his first patent of 1769 he describes one method of securing it. It occurred to him that the ordinary engine might be adapted to give the rotary motion. He wrote from Cornwall to Boulton: "As to the circular motion, I will apply it as soon as I can." He prepared a model upon his return to Soho, using a crank connected with the working-beam of the engine for that purpose, which worked satisfactorily. There was nothing new in the crank motion; it was used on every spinning-wheel, grind-stone and foot-lathe turned by hand, but its application to the steam-engine was new. As early as 1771, he writes:
I have at times had my thoughts a good deal upon the subject. In general, it appears to me that a crank of a sufficient sweep will be by much the sweetest motion, and perhaps not the dearest, if its durability be considered ... I then resolved to adopt the crank ... Of this I caused a model to be made, which performed to satisfaction. But being then very much engaged with other business, I neglected to take a patent immediately, and having employed a blackguard of the name of Cartwright (who was afterward hanged), about this model, he, when in company with some of the same sort who worked at Wasborough's mill, and were complaining of its irregularities and frequent disasters, told them he could put them in a way to make a rotative motion which would not go out of order nor stun them with its noise, and accordingly explained to them what he had seen me do. Soon after which, John Steed, who was engineer at Wasborough's mill, took a patent for a rotative motion with a crank, and applied it to their engine. Suspicions arising of Cartwright's treachery, he was strictly questioned, and confessed his part in the transaction when too late to be of service to us.
Overtures were made by Wasborough to exchange patents and work together, which Watt scornfully rejected. He writes:
Though I am not so saucy as many of my countrymen, I have enough innate pride to prevent me from doing a mean action because a servile prudence may dictate it ... I will never meanly sue a thief to give me my own again unless I have nothing left behind.
His blood was up. No dealings with rascals!