Lives of the Engineers Volume 4; The Steam-Engine. Boulton and Watt. New and REV. Ed. 1878 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 Excerpt: ...As soon as the House formed into a Committee upon the Malt Tax, the Speaker left the chair and sent for me and the machine, which was carried through the gallery in face of the whole House into the Speaker's Chamber.... Mr. Banks came to see the machine on Thursday. I thought it might be of service to show it to the Royal Society that evening.... After the business of the Society was over, he announced Mr. Watt's invention and my readiness to show it, and it was accordingly brought in and afforded much satisfaction to a crowded audience.... I spent Friday evening with Smeaton and other engineers at a coffee-house, when a gentleman (not knowing me) exclaimed against the copying-machine, and wished the inventor was hanged and the machines all burnt, which brought on a laugh, as I was known to most present." Boulton to Watt, 14th May, 1780. Boulton MSS. CHAP Xl BOULTON AND THE BANKERS 239 By the end of the year, the 150 machines first made were sold off, and more orders were coming in. Thirty were wanted for exportation abroad, and a still great number were wanted at home. The letter-copying machine gradually and steadily made its way, until at length there was scarcely a house of any extensive business transactions in which it was not to be found. Watt himself, writing of the invention some thirty years later, observed that it had proved so useful to himself, that it would have been worth all the trouble of inventing it, even had it been attended with no pecuniary profit whatever. Boulton's principal business, however, while in town, was not so much to push the letter-copying machine, but to set straight the bankers' account, which had been over-drawn to the amount of 17,000/. He was able to satisfy them to a certain extent by granting mortgages on the e...