Long before Watt’s arrival in Birmingham, the Cornishmen had been in correspondence with Boulton, making inquiries about the new Scotch invention, of which they had heard; and Dr. Small, in his letters to Watt, repeatedly urged him to perfect his engine, with a view to its being employed in the drainage of the Cornish mines. Now that the engine was at work in several places, Boulton invited his correspondents in Cornwall to inquire as to its performances, at Soho, or Bedworth, or Bow, or any other place where it had been erected. The result of the inquiry and inspection was satisfactory, and several orders for engines for Cornwall were received at Soho by the end of 1776. The two first that were ready for erection were those ordered for Wheal Busy, near Chacewater, and for Tingtang, near Redruth. The materials for the former were shipped by the middle of 1777; and, as much would necessarily depend upon the successful working of the first engines put up in Cornwall, Watt himself went to superintend their erection in person.
MAP OF UNITED MINES DISTRICT.
Watt reached his destination after a long and tedious journey over bad roads. He rode by stage as far as Exeter, and posted the rest of the way. At Chacewater he found himself in the midst of perhaps the richest mining district in the world. From thence to Camborne, which lies to the west, and Gwennap to the south, is a constant succession of mines. The earth has been burrowed in all directions for many miles in search of ore, principally copper—the surface presenting an unnaturally blasted and scarified appearance by reason of the “deads” or refuse run out in heaps from the mine-heads. Engine-houses and chimneys are the most prominent features in the landscape, and dot the horizon as far as the eye can reach.
When Watt arrived at Chacewater he found the materials for the Wheal Busy engine had come to hand, and that some progress had been made with its erection. The materials for the Tingtang engine, however, had not yet been received from Soho, and the owners of the mine were becoming very impatient for it. Watt wrote to his partner urging despatch, otherwise the engine might be thrown on their hands, especially if the Chacewater engine, now nearly ready for work, did not give satisfaction. From Watt’s account, it would appear that the Cornish mines were in a very bad way. “The Tingtang people,” he said, “are now fairly put out by water, and the works are quite at a stand.” The other mines in the neighbourhood were in no better plight. The pumping-engines could not keep down the water. “Poldice has grown worse than Wheal Virgin was: they have sunk 400l. a month for some months past, and 700l. the last month; they will probably soon give up. North Downs seems to be our next card.”[157] The owners of the Wheal Virgin mine, though drowned out, like many others, could not bring their minds to try Watt’s engine. They had no faith in it, and stuck by the old atmospheric of Newcomen. They accordingly erected an additional engine of this kind to enable them to go about eight fathoms deeper, “and they have bought,” wrote Watt, “an old boiler of monstrous size at the Briggin, which they have offered 50l. to get carried to its place.”
At Chacewater Watt first met Jonathan Hornblower, son of the Joseph Hornblower who had come into Cornwall from Staffordshire, some fifty years before, to erect one of the early Newcomen engines. The son had followed in his father’s steps, and become celebrated in the Chacewater district as an engineer. It was natural that he should regard with jealousy the patentees of the new engine; for if it proved a success, his vocation as a maker of atmospheric engines would be at an end. Watt thus referred to him in a letter to Boulton: “Hornblower seems a very pleasant sort of old Presbyterian: he carries himself very fair, though I hear that he is an unbelieving Thomas.” His unbelief strongly showed itself on the starting of the Wheal Busy engine shortly after, when he exclaimed, “Pshaw! it’s but a bauble: I wouldn’t give twopence halfpenny for her.” There were others beside Hornblower who disliked and resented what they regarded as the intrusion of Boulton and Watt in their district, and indeed never became wholly reconciled to the new engine, though they were compelled to admit the inefficiency of the old one. Among these was old Bonze, the engineer, a very clever mechanic, who positively refused to undertake the erection of the proposed new engine at Wheal Union if Boulton and Watt were to be in any way concerned with it. But the mine-owners had to study their own interest rather than the humour of their former engineers, and Watt secured the order for the Wheal Union engine. Several other orders were promised, conditional on the performances of the Wheal Busy engine proving satisfactory. “Ale and Cakes,”[158] wrote Watt, “must wait the result of Chacewater: several new engines will be erected next year, for almost all the old mines are exhausted, or have got to the full power of the present engines, which are clumsy and nasty, the houses cracked, and everything dropping with water from their cisterns.”[159]
Watt liked the people as little as he did their engines. He thought them ungenerous, jealous, and treacherous. “Certainly,” said he, “they have the most ungracious manners of any people I have ever yet been amongst.” At the first monthly meeting of the Wheal Virgin adventurers, which he attended, he found a few gentlemen, but “the bulk of them would not be disgraced by being classed with Wednesbury colliers.” What annoyed him most was, that the miners invented and propagated all sorts of rumours to his prejudice. “We have been accused,” said he, “of working without leather upon our buckets, and making holes in the clacks in order to deceive strangers.... I choose to keep out of their company, as every word spoken by me would be bandied about and misrepresented. I have already been accused of making several speeches at Wheal Virgin, where, to the best of my memory, I have only talked about eating, drinking, and the weather. The greater part of the adventurers at Wheal Virgin are a mean dirty pack, preying upon one another, and striving who shall impose most upon the mine.”[160] Watt was of too sensitive and shrinking a nature to feel himself at home amongst such people. Besides, he was disposed to be peevish and irritable, easily cast down, and ready to anticipate the worst. It had been the same with him when employed amongst the rough labourers on the Monkland Canal, where he had declared himself as ready to face a loaded cannon as to encounter the altercations of bargain-making. But Watt must needs reconcile himself to his post as he best could; for none but himself could see to the proper erection of the Wheal Busy engine and get it set to work with any chance of success. Meanwhile, the native engineers were stimulated by his presence, and by the reputed power of the new engine, to exert themselves in improving the old one. Bonze was especially active in contriving new boilers and new arrangements, by which he promised to outstrip all that Watt could possibly accomplish.[161]
A letter from Mrs. Watt to Mrs. Boulton, dated Chacewater, September 1st, 1777, throws a little light on Watt’s private life during his stay in Cornwall. She describes the difficulty they had in obtaining accommodation on their arrival, “no such thing as a house or lodging to be had for any money within some miles of the place where the engine was to be erected;” hence they had been glad to accept of the hospitality of Mr. Wilson, the superintendent of the mine.
“I scarcely know what to say to you of the country. The spot we are at is the most disagreeable in the whole county. The face of the earth is broken up in ten thousand heaps of rubbish, and there is scarce a tree to be seen. But don’t think that all Cornwall is like Chacewater. I have been at some places that are very pleasant, nay beautiful. The sea-coast to me is charming, but not easy to be got at. In some cases my poor husband has been obliged to mount me behind him to go to some of the places we have been at. I assure you I was not a little perplexed at first to be set on a great tall horse with a high pillion. At one of our jaunts we were only charged twopence a piece for our dinner. You may guess what our fare would be from the cost of it; but I assure you I never ate a dinner with more relish in my life, nor was I ever happier at a feast, than I was that day at Portreath.... One thing I must tell you of is, to take care Mr. Boulton’s principles are well fixed before you trust him here. Poor Mr. Watt is turned Anabaptist, and duly attends their meeting; he is, indeed, and goes to chapel most devoutly.”
At last the Chacewater engine was finished and ready for work. Great curiosity was felt about its performances, and mining men and engineers came from all quarters to see it start. “All the world are agape,” said Watt, “to see what it can do.” It would not have displeased some of the spectators if it had failed. But to their astonishment it succeeded. At starting, it made eleven eight-feet strokes per minute; and it worked with greater power, went more steadily, and “forked” more water than any of the ordinary engines, with only about one-third the consumption of coal. “We have had many spectators,” wrote Watt, “and several have already become converts. I understand all the west-country captains are to be here to-morrow to see the prodigy.”[162] Even Bonze, his rival, called to see it, and promised not only to read his recantation as soon as convinced, but never to touch a common engine again. “The velocity, violence, magnitude, and horrible noise of the engine,” Watt added, “give universal satisfaction to all beholders, believers or not. I have once or twice trimmed the engine to end its stroke gently, and to make less noise; but Mr. Wilson cannot sleep without it seems quite furious, so I have left it to the engine-men; and, by the by, the noise seems to convey great ideas of its power to the ignorant, who seem to be no more taken with modest merit in an engine than in a man.” In a later letter he wrote, “The voice of the country seems to be at present in our favour; and I hope will be much more so when the engine gets on its whole load, which will be by Tuesday next. So soon as that is done, I shall set out for home.”