This engine, which was probably the best which at that time had ever been erected, attracted the particular attention of Mr. Watt, who, on visiting Cornwall, went to see it, and had many experiments tried with it. It was under the care of Mr. Murdock, the agent of Messrs. Boulton and Watt in Cornwall. When Mr. Watt inspected it he pronounced it perfect, and that further improvement could not be expected. How singular an instance this of the impossibility, even of the most sagacious, to foresee the results of mechanical improvement! In twenty years afterwards the average duty of the best engine was nearly 40,000,000, and in forty years it was above 84,000,000.
BOILER MANUFACTORY.
FOOTNOTES:
[24] If 22 square inches of piston surface be allowed to represent a horse-power, the power of an engine may always be computed by dividing the square of the diameter of the piston expressed in inches by 28. And, on the other hand, to find the diameter of piston which would correspond to any given power, multiply the number of horses' power by 28, and take the square root of the product. These rules, however, cannot be applied if the piston be supposed to move with any other velocity; since, in that case, the same amount of piston surface would cease to represent a horse-power, unless the effective pressure on the piston were at the same time changed.
WATT'S CHAPEL IN HANDSWORTH CHURCH.
[CHAP. X.]
NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF MR. WATT.—HIS FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES AT BIRMINGHAM.—INVENTION OF THE COPYING PRESS.—HEATING BY STEAM.—DRYING LINEN BY STEAM.—THEORY OF THE COMPOSITION OF WATER.—FIRST MARRIAGE OF WATT.—DEATH OF HIS FIRST WIFE.—HIS SECOND MARRIAGE.—DEATH OF HIS YOUNGER SON.—EXTRACTS FROM HIS LETTERS.—CHARACTER OF WATT BY LORD BROUGHAM.—BY SIR WALTER SCOTT.—BY LORD JEFFREY.—OCCUPATION OF HIS OLD AGE.—INVENTION OF MACHINE FOR COPYING SCULPTURE.—HIS LAST DAYS.—MONUMENTS.