[ [81] For Memoir of Roebuck, see ‘Industrial Biography,’ p. 133.
[ [82] When we visited the place many years ago, Miss Stewart’s spinnet still stood in the drawing-room, but there was not a tone left in it. Like many other old houses, Kinneil has the reputation of being haunted. The ghost is that of a “Lady Lilburne,” wife of the Parliamentary General, who is said to have thrown herself out of one of the windows during her husband’s absence.
[ [83] Dr. Small was born in 1734 at Carmylie, Angus, Scotland, of which parish his father was the minister. He had been for some time the professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Williamsburg, Virginia, from whence he returned to England and settled at Birmingham.
[ [84] “I have,” he writes, “just now got a curious book, being an account of all the machines, furnaces, methods of working, profits, &c., of the mines of the Upper Hartz. It is unluckily in German, which I understand little of, but am improving in by the help of a truly Chymical Swiss Dyer, who is come here to dye standing red on linen and cotton, in which he is successful. He is according to the custom of philosophers ennuyé to a great degree, but seems to be more modest than is usual with them; and, what is still more unusual, is attached only to his dyeing, though he has a tolerable knowledge of chymestry. He promises to make me a coat that will not wet though boiled in water. This would be of great use to a hundred people I see just now running by, wet to the skin.... I verily believe the drops are an inch in diameter! To return to the book—it contains an account of all the unsuccessful experiments that have been tried in the Hartz, and I assure you it gives me some consolation to see the great Liebnitz, the rival of Newton, bungling repeatedly, applying wind mills to raise ore while water ran idle past him. There is among other machines the fellow of Blackie’s, only worked by water, and a full and true account of why it did not succeed, which he should read. Their machines in general display great ingenuity though ignorance of principles.”—Watt to Small, May 28, 1769. Boulton MSS.
[ [85] “I mentioned to you a method of still doubling the effect of the steam, and that tolerably easy, by using the power of steam rushing into a vacuum, at present lost. This would do a little more than double the effect, but it would too much enlarge the vessels to use it all. It is peculiarly applicable to wheel engines, and may supply the want of a condenser where force of steam is only used; for, open one of the steam valves and admit steam, until one-fourth of the distance between it and the next valve is filled with steam, shut the valve, and the steam will continue to expand and to press round the wheel with a diminishing power, ending in one-fourth of its first exertion. The sum of this series you will find greater than one-half, though only one-fourth steam was used. The power will indeed be unequal, but this can be remedied by a fly, or in several other ways.”—Watt to Small, 28th May, 1769. Boulton MSS.
[ [86] He anticipated the use of high-pressure steam, as afterwards employed in the locomotive by Trevithick, in the following passage:—“I intend,” he said, “in many cases to employ the expansive force of steam to press on the piston, or whatever is used instead of one, in the same manner as the weight of the atmosphere is now employed in common fire-engines. In some cases I intend to use both the condenser and this force of steam, so that the powers of these engines will as much exceed those pressed only by the air, as the expansive power of the steam is greater than the weight of the atmosphere. In other cases, when plenty of cold water cannot be had, I intend to work the engines by the force of steam only, and to discharge it into the air by proper outlets after it has done its office.”—Watt to Small, March, 1769. Boulton MSS.
[ [87] Mr. Hart’s “Reminiscences of James Watt,” in ‘Transactions of the Glasgow Archæological Society,’ Part I. 1859.
[ [88] The telescope was mounted with two parallel horizontal hairs in the focus of the eyeglass, crossed by one perpendicular hair. The measuring pole was divided into feet and inches, so that, wrote Watt, “if the hairs comprehend one foot at one chain distance, they will comprehend ten feet at ten chains,” and so on. This invention Watt made in 1770, and used the telescope in his various surveys. Eight years later, in 1778, the Society of Arts awarded to a Mr. Green a premium for precisely the same invention.
[ [89] Letter to Small, 24th Nov. 1772. Watt, however, took no steps to bring this invention before the public, and in 1777, a similar instrument having been invented by Dr. Maskelyne, was presented by him to the Royal Society. Thus Watt also lost the credit of this invention.
[ [90] The Company afterwards came to grief. The original subscription list was not filled up, and the stagnation in trade which took place at the outbreak of the American war, brought the works to a standstill. In 1782 the concern was sold to the Messrs. Stirling, who eventually became the sole proprietors and finished the undertaking.