“Although I have added to the list of my bad habits by joking upon matrimony, yet my disposition and my judgment would lead me to marry again were I in your case. I know you will be happier as a married man than as a single one, and therefore it is wisdom in you to wed; and if that could not be done without my coming to Scotland, I certainly would come if it were as far again; but I am so beset with difficulties, that nothing less than the absolute loss of your life, or wife—which is virtually the same thing—could bring me.”
He further explained that a good deal of extra work had fallen upon him, through the absence of some of his most important assistants. Mr. Matthews, his London financial agent, like Watt, was about to be married, and would be absent abroad for a tour on a wedding trip, in which he was to be accompanied by Fothergill, Boulton’s partner in the toy and button trade. Mr. Scale, the manager, was also absent, added to which the button orders were in arrear some 16,000 gross; so that, said Boulton, “I have more real difficulties to grapple with than I hope ever to have in any other year in my life.”
There were also constant visitors arriving at Soho: among others the Duke of Buccleuch, who had called to see the works and inquire after Mr. Watt; and Mr. Moor, of the Society of Engineers in the Adelphi, who had come to see with his own eyes whether the reports in circulation against the new engine were true or false. The perfecting of the details of the engine also required constant attention.
“Our copper bottom,” said Boulton, “hath plagued us very much by steam leaks, and therefore I have had one cast (with its conducting pipe) all in one piece; since which the engine doth not take more than 10 feet of steam, and I hope to reduce that quantity, as we have just received the new piston, which shall be put in and at work to-morrow. Our Soho engine never was in such good order as at present. Bloomfield and Willey [engines] are both well, and I doubt not but Bow engine will be better than any of ’em.”
Boulton was almost as full of speculation as Watt himself as to the means of improving the engine. “I did not sleep last night,” he wrote, “my mind being absorbed by steam.” One of his speculations was as to the means of increasing the heating surface, and with that object he proposed to apply the fire “in copper spheres within the water.” His mind was also running on economising power by working steam expansively, “being clear that the principle is sound.”
Later, he wrote Watt that he had an application from a distiller at Bristol for an engine to raise 15,000 gallons of ale per hour 15 feet high; another for a coal mine in Wales, and two others for London distilleries. To add to his anxieties, one Humphry Gainsborough, a dissenting minister at Henley-on-Thames, had instituted proceedings against Watt for an alleged piracy of his invention! On this Boulton wrote to his partner,—“I have just received a summons to attend the Solicitor-General next week in opposition to Gainsborough, otherwise the solicitor will make his report. This is a disagreeable circumstance, particularly at this season, when you are absent. Joseph [Harrison] is in London, and idleness is in our engine-shop.” There was therefore every reason why Watt should make haste to get married, and return to Soho as speedily as possible. On the 28th July, 1776, Watt wrote to apologise for his long absence, and to say that the event was to come off on the following Monday, after which he would set out immediately for Liverpool, where he proposed to meet Boulton, unless countermanded. He also intimated that he had got another order for an engine at Leadhills.[150] Arrived at Liverpool, a letter from Boulton met him, saying he had been under the necessity of proceeding to London.
“Gainsborough,” said he, “hath appointed to meet me at Holt’s, his attorney, on Monday, when I shall say little besides learning his principles and invention. If we had a hundred wheels [wheel-engines] ready made, and a hundred small engines, like Bow engine, and twenty large ones executed, we could readily dispose of them. Therefore let us make hay while the sun shines, and gather our barns full before the dark cloud of age lowers upon us, and before any more Tubal Cains, Watts, Dr. Faustuses, or Gainsboroughs, arise with serpents like Moses’s to devour all others.... As to your absence, say nothing about it. I will forgive it this time, provided you promise me never to marry again.”[151]
Watt hastened back to Birmingham, and after settling his wife in her new home, proceeded with the execution of the orders for engines which had come in during his two months’ absence. Mr. Wilby was impatient for the delivery of the Bow engine, and as soon as it was ready, which was early in September, the materials were forwarded to London with Joseph Harrison, to be fitted and set to work. Besides careful verbal instructions, Watt supplied Joseph with full particulars in writing of the measures he was to adopt in putting the engine together. Not a point in detail was neglected, and if any difficulty arose, Joseph was directed at once to communicate with him by letter. When the engine was set to work, it was found that the steam could not be kept up, on which Watt suggested that as it had been calculated to make only ten strokes per minute—that being enough to raise the quantity of water desired—the reason of the defect must be that, as it was going at fourteen or fifteen strokes the minute, it must be going too fast. He also pointed out that probably the piston was not quite good, and perhaps there was some steam-leak into the inner cylinder, or by the regulators into the condenser; or it was possible that the injection might spout too far up the horizontal steam-pipe and throw water into the inner nozzle. All these points Joseph must carefully look to. On further trials the engine improved; still its performances did not come up to Watt’s expectations, and there were consequently more directions from him as to the packing of the pistons and measures for the prevention of leaks. But to see that his suggestions were properly carried out, Watt himself went up to town in November, and had the machine put in complete working trim. His partner, however, could not spare him long, as other orders were coming in. “We have a positive order,” wrote Boulton, “for an engine for Tingtang mine, and, from what I heard this day from Mr. Glover, we may soon expect other orders from Cornwall. Our plot begins to thicken apace, and if Mr. Wilkinson don’t bustle a little, as well as ourselves, we shall not gather our harvest before sunset.” ... “I hope to hear,” he added, “that Joseph hath made a finish, for he is much wanted here.... I perceive we shall be hard pushed in engine-work; but I have no fears of being distanced when once the exact course or best track is determined on.”[152] Joseph Harrison got quite knocked up and ill through his anxiety about the Bow engine, on which Boulton wrote Watt to send at once for Dr. Fordyce to attend him, “let the expense be what it will, until you think him safe landed.”
A letter reached Soho from the Shadwell Waterworks Company relative to a pumping-engine, and Boulton asked Watt, while in town, to wait upon them on the subject; but he cautioned Watt that he “never knew a Committee but, in its corporate capacity, was both rogue and fool, and that the Shadwell Committee were rich rogues.” Watt, by his own account, treated them very cavalierly. “Yesterday,” said he, “I went again to Shadwell to meet the deputies of the Committee, and to examine their engines when going. We came to no terms further than what we wrote them before, which I confirmed, and offered moreover to keep the engine in order for one year. They modestly insisted that we should do so for the whole twenty-five years, which I firmly refused. They seemed to doubt the reality of the performances of the Bow engine; so I told them we did not solicit their orders and would wait patiently until they were convinced,—moreover, that while they had any doubts remaining, we would not undertake their business on any terms. I should not have been so sharp with them had they not begun with bullying me, selon la mode de Londres. But the course I took was not without its effect, for in proportion as they found I despised their job, they grew more civil. After parting with these heroes I went down to Stratford, where I found that the engine had gone very well. I caused it to be kept going all the afternoon, and this morning I new-heat the piston and kept it going till dinner time at about fifteen strokes per minute, with a steam of one inch or at most two inches strong, and the longer it went the better it grew.... I propose that Joseph should not leave it for a few days, until both his health and that of the engine be confirmed. A relapse of the engine would ruin our reputation here, and indeed elsewhere.”[153]
The Bow engine had, however, a serious relapse in the following spring, and it happened in this way:—Mr. Smeaton, the engineer, having heard of its success, which he doubted, requested Hadley, Boulton’s agent, to go down with him to Stratford-le-Bow to witness its performances. He carefully examined the engine, and watched it while at work, and the conclusion he arrived at was, that it was a pretty engine, but much too complex for practical uses. On leaving the place Smeaton gave the engineman some money to drink, and he drank so much that next day he let the engine run quite wild, and it was thrown completely out of order. Mr. Wilby, the manager, was very wroth at the circumstance. He discharged the engineman and called upon Hadley to replace the valves, which had been broken, and make good the other damage that had been done to the engine. When the repairs were made, everything went satisfactorily as before.