[ [91] There was then a ford at Dumbuck, a few miles below Glasgow, which prevented boats of more than ten tons burden ascending to the Broomielaw. This was shortly after removed by the Clyde Trust, who have expended 3,564,397l. in improvement of the navigation between 1770 and 1863, the revenue collected during the same time in dues having been 2,288,000l. Vessels drawing 21 feet can now ascend to the Broomielaw; and when the present improvements are completed the depth at high water is expected to be upwards of 24 feet.
[ [92] Watt to Small, 21st Dec. 1770. Boulton MSS.
[ [93] The bridge was partially destroyed by a flood in 1806, when one of the central piers was thrown down. Two of the arches fell, and were rebuilt, but the others stand as originally constructed.
[ [94] The child was stillborn. Of four other children who were the fruit of this marriage, two died young. A son and daughter survived; the son, James, succeeded his father, and died unmarried, at Aston Hall, near Birmingham, in 1848. The daughter married Mr. Miller, of Glasgow, whose grandson, the present J. W. Gibson Watt, Esq., succeeded to the Watt property.
[ [95] There seems reason to believe that the capacity for skilled industry is to a certain extent transmissible; and that the special aptitude for mechanics which characterises the population of certain districts, is in a great measure the result of centuries of experience, transmitted from one generation to another. Mr. Morell takes the same view: “We have every reason to believe,” he says, “that the power of specialised instincts is transmitted, and when the circumstances favour it, goes on increasing from age to age in intensity, and in a particular adaptation to the purposes demanded. All confirmed habits which become a part of the animal nature, seem to be imparted by hereditary descent; and thus what seems to be an original instinct may, after all, be but the accumulated growth and experience of many generations.”
[ [96] For Memoir of Huntsman, see ‘Industrial Biography,’ 102–110.
[ [97] While on Snow-hill, Mr. Boulton’s business was principally confined to the making of buttons, shoe-buckles, articles in steel, and various kinds of trinkets. His designation was that of “toymaker,” as is shown by the following document copied from the original:—“Received of Matthew Boulton, toymaker, Snow-hill, three shillings and sixpence, for which sum I solemnly engage, if he should be chosen by lot to serve in the militia for this parish, at the first meeting for that purpose, to procure a substitute that shall be approved of. Birmingham, January 11, 1762, Henry Brookes, Sergt.” The Birmingham toymaker was, however, often a man doing a large business, producing articles of utility as well as ornament. Mr. Osler, the Birmingham manufacturer of glass beads and other toys, when examined before a Committee of the House of Commons many years since, astonished the members by informing them that trifling though dolls’ eyes might appear to be as an article of manufacture, he had once obtained an order for 500l. worth of the article. “Eighteen years ago,” said he, “on my first going to London, a respectable-looking man in the city asked me if I could supply him with dolls’ eyes; and I was foolish enough to feel half offended; I thought it derogatory to my dignity as a manufacturer to make dolls’ eyes. He took me into a room quite as wide, and perhaps twice the length of this, and we had just room to walk between the stacks, from the floor to the ceiling, of parts of dolls. He said, ‘These are only the legs and the arms; the trunks are below.’ But I saw enough to convince me, that he wanted a great many eyes.... He ordered various quantities, and of various sizes and qualities. On returning to the Tavistock Hotel, I found that the order amounted to upwards of 500l.... Calculating on every child in this country not using a doll till two years old, and throwing it aside at seven, and having a new one annually, I satisfied myself that the eyes alone would produce a circulation of a great many thousand pounds. I mention this merely to show the importance of trifles.”—Babbage, ‘Economy of Machinery and Manufactures,’ 243–5.
[ [98] Mr. Boulton afterwards purchased the fee simple of the property, together with much of the adjoining land. The nature of his tenure caused him to take a lively interest in the question of common lands enclosure, and at a much later period (17th April, 1790) we find him writing to the Right Hon. Lord Hawkesbury as follows:—“The argument of robbing the poor [by enclosures of wastes] is fallacious. They have no legal title to the common land; and the more of it that is cultivated, the more work and the more bread there will be for them. I speak from experience; for I founded my manufactory upon one of the most barren commons in England, where there existed but a few miserable huts filled with idle beggarly people, who by the help of the common land and a little thieving made shift to live without working. The scene is now entirely changed. I have employed a thousand men, women, and children, in my aforesaid manufactory for nearly thirty years past. The Lord of the Manor hath exterminated these very poor cottages, and hundreds of clean comfortable cheerful houses are found erected in their place. Thus the inhabitants of the parish have been trebled without at all increasing the poor levies. I am more confirmed in this view when I turn my eyes to a neighbouring parish (Sutton Colefield), where there are 10,000 acres of common land uncultivated, and yet the poor rates are very high. Let this land be divided, enclosed, cultivated, and rendered saleable to active, industrious, and spirited men; and the poor will then have plenty of work, and the next generation of them will be fully reconciled to earning their bread instead of begging for it.”—Boulton MSS.
[ [99] Mr. Keir, in a MS. memoir of Mr. Boulton now before us, says he was the first to introduce the silver plate business at Birmingham, and to make complete services in solid silver. But the business was not profitable, in consequence of the great value of the material, the loss of interest upon which was not compensated by the additional price put upon it for workmanship. One good consequence of the silver plate business, however, was the establishment of an assay office in Birmingham, the necessary Act for which was obtained at Mr. Boulton’s expense, and proved of much advantage to the town.
[ [100] “If, in the course of your future travelling,” he wrote Mr. Wendler (July, 1767), “you can pick up for me any metallic ores or fossil substances, or any other curious natural productions, I should be much obliged to you, as I am fond of all those things that have a tendency to improve my knowledge in mechanical arts, in which my manufactory will every year become more and more general, and therefore wish to know the taste, the fashions, the toys, both useful and ornamental, the implements, vessels, &c., that prevail in all the different parts of Europe, as I should be glad to work for all Europe in all things that they may have occasion for—gold, silver, copper, plated, gilt, pinchbeck, steel, platina, tortoiseshell, or anything else that may become an article of general demand. I have lately begun to make snuff-boxes, instrument-cases, tooth-picks, &c., in metal, gilt, and in tortoiseshell inlaid, likewise gilt and pinchbeck watch-chains. We are now being completely fixed at Soho, and when Mr. Fothergill returns (which will not be for six months), I shall then have more time to attend to improvements than I have at present.”—Boulton MSS.