CHAPTER XX.
Prosperity of Soho—Young Boulton and Watt—The Riots—William Murdock.
The steam-engine had now become firmly established as a working power. Beginning as a water pumper for miners, it had gradually been applied to drive corn and cotton mills, to roll and hammer iron, to coin money, to work machinery, and to perform the various labour in which the power of men and horses, of wind and water, had before been employed. The numerous orders for new engines which came in at Soho kept the works increasingly busy. Many skilled workmen had by this time been trained into expertness and dexterity; and, being kept to their special departments of work,—fathers training their sons to work with them at the same benches,—a degree of accuracy and finish was reached which contributed to establish and maintain the prestige of the manufactory. The prosperity of the firm was also materially promoted by the able assistants who had been trained at Soho, and were in due time promoted to superintend special departments of the business. Among these were Murdock, Walker, Southern, Ewart, and Lawson, who enjoyed the fullest confidence of their chiefs, and repaid it with unswerving loyalty.
When the concern had become thoroughly organised under these able heads of departments, Boulton and Watt began to breathe more freely. Their financial difficulties had now disappeared, and instead of laying out capital, they had begun to accumulate it. They had laboured hard for their reward and richly earned it; and after their long up-hill struggle, they well deserved rest and peace at last. They now began to take occasional journeys of recreation, with which they varied their journeys of business. Thus, in the autumn of 1789, we find Boulton making a tour in Derbyshire, during which he was overtaken at Buxton by a letter from the Lords of the Privy Council on coining business, giving him “marching orders for London;” but a party having been formed to visit the Peak Cavern, he decided “to obey the Ladies rather than the Lords.” Three days later, however, we find him in London, “writing in a full chattering coffee-house at Charing Cross,” and desiring his friend Mr. Barrow to pay his respects to the ladies whom he had so hurriedly left. While in London, he received a letter inviting him to pay a visit to Holland and stand godfather to his friend Mr. Hoofletter’s son; to which he replied, that he would be glad to stand godfather to the boy and have the name of Boulton associated with an honest race, but was sorry that he could not assist at the christening or at the dinner. “But pray act for me,” he added; “do everything that’s proper (as is the custom in the country); give the nurse five guineas from me, and I will repay you. My best respects to Mrs. Hoofletter, and my blessing on the young Christian.”
Watt’s troubles and anxieties also were in course of gradual abatement. Though still suffering from headaches, asthma, and low spirits, he seems on the whole to have become more satisfied with his lot. Prosperity agreed with him as it does with most people. It is a condition easy to bear, and Watt took to it kindly. As years passed over his head, he became placid, contented, and even cheerful. His health improved, and he enjoyed life in his old age as he had never done in his youth. He ceased longing for the rest of the grave, and gave over “cursing his inventions.” On the other hand, he took pleasure in looking back over the long and difficult road he had traversed, and in recounting the various steps by which he had perfected his great inventions. Nor did he cease to invent; for he went on inventing new things to the close of his life; but he followed the pursuit as a recreation and delight, and not as a business and a drudgery.
Watt too, like his partner, began to make tours of pleasure, for the purpose at the same time of gathering health and seeing the beauties of nature. In August, 1789, he wrote Boulton from Cheltenham, that he had been making a delightful journey through the Western Counties, by way of Worcester, Malvern, Hereford, and Chepstow, and that he felt in better health and spirits than he had been for a very long time. Occasional letters reached him from Birmingham about orders received for engines, nothing being done without first consulting him. That the concern was thriving, may be inferred from the comparative indifference with which he now regarded such orders. An engine having been ordered by a doubtful person, Watt wrote—“I look upon such orders as of little value. They are so precarious in their duration, and in this case there is risk of bad payment or swindling. Whatever care we take, he is like a shaved pig with a soaped tail.” On a demand being made upon him for abatement of dues, he wrote—“We have never made concessions to anybody but they have been attended with loss to us and half a dozen more; and it would appear that, if our patent lasted long enough, the power of a horse would grow to that of an elephant.”[328]
In the course of the following summer, Watt visited the pleasantest spots in the neighbourhood of London, and amongst other places took Windsor in his way, where he had the honour of an interview with the King. He had already met his Majesty at Whitbread’s brewery in the early part of 1787, for the purpose of explaining to him the action of the new rotary engine; and the King had expressed the desire to see him again when in the neighbourhood of Windsor. The following is Watt’s brief account of the visit:—
“At Windsor I had a short conversation with the King. He never mentioned you nor the coinage, nor anything that led to it; therefore I could not bring it on; nor do I believe it could have been of any service. He asked about engines, and how the Albion mill was going on?—Answer: Very well in respect to grinding, but not so well in regard to the trade. Asked: Who was the manager?—Answer: Mr. J. Wyatt, who made the wooden hospitals. He observed, that Wyatt was not bred to the milling business; how had he learnt it?—Answer: That he was a man of ability and observation. Asked: What sort of engines were we making?—Answer: For almost everything, but at present principally for brewers, distillers, cotton-spinners, iron-men, &c.—Asked: How we were paid for them?—Answer: By horses power, 5l. a year in the country, and that we made none under four-horses power.—Asked: If these premiums afforded sufficient profit?—Answer: That they did in large engines, but not in small.”[329]
As Boulton and Watt advanced in years they looked forward with pleasure to the prospect of their two eldest sons—Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt, junior—joining them in the business they had established, and relieving them of the greater part of their anxieties and labours in connexion with it. Both were young men of intelligence and character, carefully educated, good linguists, and well versed in practical science. We find many references to the education of the two young men in the letters of Boulton; few or none in those of Watt. The former alike attracted young people and was attracted by them, entering heartily into their pursuits; the latter was too much absorbed by study, by inventions, and by business, to spare time for the purpose. Besides, he was, like his countrymen generally, reserved and undemonstrative in all matters relating to the feelings and affections.
Both boys were trained and educated so as to follow in their fathers’ steps. Every pain was taken to give them the best culture, and to imbue them with the soundest principles. The two boys usually spent their holidays together at Soho; and, growing up together, they learnt to think, and feel, and work together.