by Ben Russell
23 A. Yarrington and C. Sicca, eds, The Lustrous Trade: Material Culture and the History of Sculpture in England and Italy c. 1700–c. 1860 (Leicester, 2000), pp. 13–14.
24 V. Coltman, Fabricating the Antique: Neoclassicism in Britain, 1760–1800 (Chicago, IL, 2006), p. 163.
25 J. Northall, Travels through Italy, Containing New and Curious Observations on that Country (London, 1766), p. 362.
26 F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900, 4th edn (New Haven, CT, 1994), p. 85.
27 It is still possible to visit Selborne and see the statue.
28 M. Craske, ‘Contacts and Contracts: Sir Henry Cheere and the Formation of a New Commercial World of Sculpture in Mid-eighteenth Century London’, in The Lustrous Trade, ed. Sicca and Yarrington, pp. 94–113, p. 104.
29 Ibid., pp. 104–5.
30 M. Droth, ‘Small Sculpture c. 1900: The “New Statuette” in English Sculptural Aesthetics’, in Sculpture and the Pursuit of a Modern Ideal in Britain, c. 1880–1930, ed. David Getsy (Aldershot, 2004), pp. 141–66: p. 145.
31 T. Clifford, ‘The Plaster Shops of the Rococo and Neo-classical Era in Britain’, Journal of the History of Collections, IV/1 (1992), pp. 39–65: p. 39.
32 Coltman, Fabricating the Antique, p. 129.
33 Haskell and Penny, Taste and the Antique, p. 122.
34 J. Insley, ‘Sculpture for the Masses: James Watt and the Reproduction of Art’, ICOHTEC ‘Consumer Choice and Technology’ conference, Glasgow, 6 August 2011. Review, J. T. Smith, ed., ‘Nollekens and His Times’, Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. From July to December 1828, XCVIII/2 (London, 1828), pp. 536–40: p. 538.
35 Droth, ‘Small Sculpture, c. 1900’, p. 142.
36 ‘Obituary, John Isaac Hawins, 1772–1855’, Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, XXV (1866), pp. 512–14: p. 512.
37 S. Bedini, Thomas Jefferson and his Copying Machines (Charlottesville, VA, 1984), p. 172.
38 D. Brewer, ‘Review of J. P. Muirhead’s The Origin and Progress of the Mechanical Inventions of James Watt’, North British Review, XXIII (May and August 1855), pp. 103–24: p. 119.
39 Cheverton never patented the machine. Report of the Select Committee on Arts and their Connexion with Manufactures: With the Minutes of Evidence, Appendix and Index, 16 August 1836, paragraph 618.
40 British Association for the Advancement of Science, ‘Minutes of Evening Meeting, 11 September 1837’, Mechanics Magazine, XXVII (1837), pp. 449–56: p. 453.
41 M. Shedd, ‘A Mania for Statuettes: Achille Collas and other Pioneers in the Mechanical Reproduction of Sculpture’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, CXX (July–August 1992), pp. 36–48: p. 40.
42 British Association, ‘Minutes of Evening Meeting’, p. 453.
43 J. P. Muirhead, The Origin and Progress of the Mechanical Inventions of James Watt (London, 1854), vol. I, p. ccl.
44 Coltman, Fabricating the Antique, p. 155.
45 Shedd, ‘A Mania for Statuettes’, p. 44.
46 M. Whinney, Sculpture in Britain, 1530 to 1830 (London, 1964), p. 226.
47 Science Museum inv. 1926–1075.
48 F. Arago, Historical Eloge of James Watt (London, 1839), pp. 181–2; Dickinson, The Garret Workshop of James Watt, p. 21.
49 H. W. Dickinson research file ‘James Watt’, Science Museum, transcript of Watt’s will, provided by E. C. Smith to H. W. Dickinson, 22 January 1920.
50 M. Hess and S.Robson, ‘Re-engineering Watt: A Case Study and Best Practice Recommendations for 3D Colour Laser Scans and 3D Printing in Museum Artefact Documentation’, Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks, IX (London, 2013), pp. 154–62.
51 J. Insley, ‘Sculpture for the Masses: James Watt and the Reproduction of Art’, icohtec ‘Consumer Choice and Technology’ conference, Glasgow, 6 August 2011. For more on the Gahagans, see I. Roscoe, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660–1851 (London, 2009), pp. 489–97.
52 A.J.C. Hare, ed., The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth (London, 1894), vol. I, p. 153.
53 Ibid., p. 154; Whinney, Sculpture in Britain, p. 226.
54 H. B. Hancock and N. B. Wilkinson, ‘Joshua Gilpin: An American Manufacturer in England and Wales, 1795–1801 – Part II’, Transactions of the Newcomen Society, XXXIII (1960–61), pp. 57–66: p. 57.
55 R. Porter, A Social History of England in the 18th Century (London, 1982), p. 331.
56 D. Eastwood, ‘The Age of Uncertainty: Britain in the Early Nineteenth Century’, Tranactions of the Royal Historical Society, VIII (1998), pp. 91–115: p. 104.
57 S. Smiles, Lives of the Engineers: The Steam-engine. Boulton and Watt (London, 1878), p. 408.
58 F. Crouzet, The Victorian Economy (London, 1982), p. 7.
59 A. Briggs, The Power of Steam: An Illustrated History of the World’s Steam Age (London, 1982), pp. 70–103.
60 Smiles, Lives of the Engineers: Boulton and Watt, p. 405.
61 C. MacLeod, Heroes of Invention (Cambridge, 2007), chaps 4 and 5; C. MacLeod, ‘The Nineteenth-Century Engineer as Cultural Hero’, in Brunel: In Love with the Impossible, ed. A. and M. Kelly (Bristol, 2006).
62 Science Museum inv. 1992–163, Watt’s First Experiment of Steam, engraving by James Scott after the painting by R. W. Buss, 1849; inv. 1995–746, Watt’s First Experiment, engraving by Herbert Bourne after the painting by Marcus Stone, 1879.
63 D. P. Miller, ‘“Puffing Jamie”: The Commercial and Ideological Importance of being a “Philosopher” in the Case of the Reputation of James Watt (1736–1819)’, History of Science, XXXVIII (2000), pp. 1–24: p. 4.
64 H. Torrens, ‘Jonathan Hornblower (1753–1815) and the Steam Engine: A Historiographic Analysis’, in Perceptions of Great Engineers: Fact and Fantasy, ed. D. Smith (London, 1994), pp. 23–34: p. 26.
65 Arago, Historical Eloge of James Watt, pp. 128–9.
66 D. P. Miller, ‘True Myths: James Watt’s Kettle, his Condenser, and his Chemistry’, History of Science, XLII (2004), pp. 333–60: p. 343.
67 Miller, ‘True Myths’, p. 345.
68 MacLeod, Heroes of Invention, chaps 4, 7 and 8; D. P. Miller, James Watt: Chemist (London, 2009).
69 C. MacLeod and J. Tann, ‘From Engineer to Scientist: Reinventing Invention in the Watt and Faraday Centenaries, 1919–31’, British Journal for the History of Science, XL (September 2007), pp. 389–411: pp. 411, 409.
70 David Miller, ‘True Myths’, p. 345; ‘Craftsman and Engineer’ was the subtitle to H. W. Dickinson’s 1936 biography of Watt. MacLeod and Tann, ‘From Engineer to Scientist’, p. 397.
71 H. W. Dickinson research file ‘James Watt’, Science Museum, transcript of Watt’s will, provided by E. C. Smith to H. W. Dickinson, 22 January 1920.
72 J. P. Muirhead, The Origin and Progress of the Mechanical Inventions of James Watt (London, 1854), vol. I, p. cclv.
73 Smiles, Lives of the Engineers: Boulton and Watt, p. 409.
74 A. McConnell, ‘Woodcroft, Bennet (1803–1879)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online, www.oxforddnb.com, accessed 20 June 2012. See also J. Hewish, The Indefatigable Mr Woodcroft (London, 1979), and Rooms Near Chancery Lane: The Patent Office Under the Commissioners, 1852–1883 (London, 2000).
75 Science Museum technical file T/1924–792, J. W. Gibson Watt to B. Woodcroft, 27 September 1863.
76 Science Museum technical file T/1924–792, F. P. Smith to J. W. Gibson Watt, 28 September 1863.
77 Science Museum technical file T/1924-792, J. W. Gibson Watt to F. P. Smith, 30 September 1863. Science Museum inv. 1863–15.
78 Science Museum ‘Z’ Archive, fol. Z24/D, B. Woodcroft to E. Price, 11 May 1883.
79 Science Museum technical file T/1924–792, B. Woodcroft to J. W. Gibson Watt, 28 September 1863.
80 Science Museum technical file T/1924–792, B. Woodcroft to F. P. Smith, 13 January 1864.
81 Science Museum technical file T/1924–792, M. Pemberton to F. P. Smith
, 6 May 1864, and B. Woodcroft to J. Romilly, 7 May 1864.
82 P. Wakelin, Blaenavon Ironworks and World Heritage Landscape (Cardiff, 2006), p. 14; B. Trinder, The Making of the Industrial Landscape (London, 1982), p. 109.
83 W. O. Henderson, J. C. Fischer and his Diary of Industrial England, 1814–51 (London, 1966), p. 134.
84 H. W. Dickinson and R. Jenkins, James Watt and the Steam Engine (Oxford, 1927), p. 270.
85 P. Jones, ‘Matthew Boulton: Enlightenment Man’, keynote lecture, ‘Where Genius and the Arts Reside: Matthew Boulton and the Soho Manufactory 1809–2009’ conference, Birmingham, 3 July 2009.
86 E. C. Smith, A Short History of Naval and Marine Engineering (Cambridge, 1937), p. 14.
87 Science Museum technical file T/1862–53, G. Allan & Sons to J. S. Russell, 16 July 1862.
88 Science Museum technical file T/1862–53, B. Woodcroft to F. P. Smith, 21 July 1862.
89 Science Museum technical file T/1862–53, A. B. McGeorge to F. P. Smith, 21 December 1862.
90 J. Simmons, ed., Letters from England by Robert Southey (London, 1951), p. 132.
91 Travels of Carl Philipp Moritz in England, 1782; A reprint of the English translation of 1785 (London, 1924), p. 162. Moritz shamefacedly noted that ‘I also cut myself a piece of it; but, reverencing Shakespeare as I do, I am almost ashamed to own to you, it was so small that I have lost it.’
92 Report from the Select Committee on the Patent Office Library and Museum; Together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index, 19 July 1864 (London, 1864), p. 93. Readers will forgive the author for noting that nothing has changed.
93 MacLeod, Heroes of Invention, p. 261.
94 Science Museum ‘Z’ archive, Z24/E, fols 1097 and 1148, B. Woodcroft to J. W. Gibson Watt, 12 April 1865 and 7 November 1866. The model survives today, Science Museum inv. 1866–57.
95 Science Museum ‘Z’ archive, Z24/D, Patent Office Museum outgoing letter book, fol. 987, Lord Chancellor’s private secretary to J. Romilly, 28 May 1864.
96 H. W. Dickinson, The Garret Workshop of James Watt, p. 9.
97 Pemberton, James Watt of Soho and Heathfield, p. 66.
98 Science Museum ‘Z’ archive, Z24/I, letter 1842, B. Woodcroft to H. R. Lack, 25 April 1877.
99 Pemberton, James Watt of Soho and Heathfield, pp. 61, 64.
100 Science Museum nominal file 1814, J. M. Gibson Watt to H. Lyons, 12 February 1926.
101 Science Museum technical file T/1924–792, H. Stuart Wortley to Mr Lack, 21 July 1883.
102 The inventory, dated 1885, remains in Science Museum technical file T/1924–792.
103 Smiles, Lives of the Engineers: Boulton and Watt, pp. 408–9.
104 D. P. Miller, James Watt: Chemist (London, 2009), p. 28.
105 Ibid., p. 86.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berg, Maxine, The Age of Manufactures (London, 1994)
——, Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth-century Britain (Oxford, 2005)
Clow, Archibald, and Nan L., The Chemical Revolution: A Contribution to Social Technology (London, 1952)
Dickinson, Henry W., Matthew Boulton (Cambridge, 1937)
——, and Rhys Jenkins, James Watt and the Steam Engine, 2nd edn (London, 1989)
Fox, Celina, The Arts of Industry in the Age of Enlightenment (New Haven, CT, 2009)
Hills, Richard L., James Watt, vol. I: His Time in Scotland, 1736–1774 (Ashbourne, 2002)
——, James Watt, vol. II: The Years of Toil, 1775–1785 (Ashbourne, 2005)
——, James Watt, vol. III: Triumph through Adversity, 1785–1819 (Ashbourne, 2006)
Jones, Peter, Industrial Enlightenment: Science, Technology and Culture in Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1760 –1820 (Manchester, 2008)
Langford, Paul, A Polite and Commercial People: England, 1727–1783 (Oxford, 1999)
MacLeod, Christine, Heroes of Invention (Cambridge, 2007)
Mantoux, Paul, The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century, 2nd edn (London, 1961)
Mason, Shena, ed., Matthew Boulton: Selling What All the World Desires, exh. cat., Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (New Haven, CT, and London, 2009)
Miller, David P., James Watt: Chemist (London, 2009)
Mokyr, Joel, The Enlightened Economy: Britain and the Industrial Revolution, 1700–1850 (London, 2009)
Morrison-Low, Alison, Making Scientific Instruments during the Industrial Revolution (Aldershot, 2007)
Musson, A. E., and Eric Robinson, Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution (Manchester, 1969)
Sotheby’s, The James Watt Sale: Art and Science (London, 2003)
Uglow, Jenny, The Lunar Men: The Friends who Made the Future, 1730–1810 (London, 2002)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I have been very lucky in writing this book to have drawn upon a big pool of expertise and interest. The Science Museum Library staff have patiently dealt with a constant stream of requests and questions. Curatorial colleagues past and present, in the Science Museum and elsewhere, have chipped in with all manner of advice and encouragement. Peter Morris has provided invaluable editorial support, and the team who worked on the redisplay of Watt’s workshop in 2011 at the Science Museum, Jane Insley, Andrew Nahum, Helen Peavitt, Adrian Whicher and Sarah Stallard, thrashed out many of the broad themes and turned them into a physical exhibition. Jane also read the manuscript and removed some of the ‘Ben-isms’. Jim Andrew gave valuable advice, as has an anonymous referee, and Merel van der Vaart provided reassurance that the whole thing might be of some interest beyond the history of technology community. Any blunders remaining are, of course, entirely down to the author.
All images are courtesy of the Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library, except the images on pages 25 and 35, which are courtesy UIG History / Science & Society Picture Library.
INDEX
Adams, George(s) 64, 71
‘affective revolution’ 171
agriculture 26
Aikin, John 20, 93
Albion Mill, London 167, 181
alcohol, consumption of 22, 23–4
alkali manufacture 84, 90
Anderson, John 52, 81, 83
model steam engine 73, 74, 75, 105
antiquity, world of
applied to machine design 17, 182–4
education in 178–9
orders of architecture 186
popular appetite for 179
Arkwright, Richard 36, 146–7
spinning machines 147, 147, 166
conceptualisation of factory
system 148
cotton mills 148
Ayr Bank, failure of 107
Barclay’s Brewery, London 165
Bateman & Sherratt 155
Bersham 121, 130, 138
Birmingham
as a metalworking centre 110–13
industrial enlightenment in 42, 111
Black, Joseph 47, 49, 52, 84, 92, 100, 102, 103
consultant to industrialists 82
friendship with Watt 48
latent heat 105
theories of heat 97, 98, 104–6
‘Blacksmith, The’, from The Book of Trades (1824) 128
blacksmithing 119, 127, 139, 141, 161, 162
‘Bleacher, The’, from The Book of Trades (1824) 85
Bloomfield Colliery engine 109–10, 138
Book of Trades, The (1824) 40, 85, 117, 126, 128, 160
Botallack Mine, The View of, Phillip Mitchell 131
Boulton, Matthew 112, 113
concept for making and selling
steam engines 115, 120
death mask of 217, 218
interest in antiquity 182–3
networking abilities 113–14
Boulton, Matthew Robinson 171
Boulton & Watt engine at Fazeley Street Rolling Mills, drawing 168
Boulton & Watt partnership, end of 186
Boulton & Watt steam engine
charging f
or use of 137–8
cylinder of 122, 127, 129–30
Directions for Erecting and Working the Newly-invented Steam Engines (1779) 135
erection of 130–32
expansive use of steam 152
how it was made 122, 125
how many were built 138, 142
imaginative attraction of 167, 169
legacy of 168
materials used in construction 124, 129
organization of construction 120–21
parallel motion 152
patent infringement 149–50, 167–8
places where it was used 122, 148–9, 167
proportions of 158, 185, 186, 189–90
revolution counter 137, 137
rotative engine 149–52, 153
standardisation 136
steam wheel 149
sun and planet gear 151, 151
use in cotton industry
Bourne, John 187, 189
Bull, Edward 167
‘Button Maker’, from The Book of Trades 117
buttons
fashion for 115–16
manufacturing processes of 115–16
workforce 119–20
cast iron 13, 106, 124, 131, 132, 154, 164, 167, 191–3
chipping 172
drilling 132
Carlile, John 72
Carron Foundry 88, 154
ceramics
porcelain 92–3
Delftware 92
earthenware 93
creamware 93–4
interaction of theory and practice
in 88
materials 90
Chadburn Brothers, Sheffield 77, 77
Chambers, William 185, 188, 191
Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture (1759) 182, 184–5
chemistry 14
crossovers between philosophical
to industrial 84, 102
of heat 80, 96, 97–9
manipulating heat in 80, 103
of the steam engine 81, 96
use of the senses in 103–4
Cheverton, Benjamin 213–15, 214, 216
Clegg, Samuel, Architecture of Machinery 192, 200
clockmaking 159–64
clocksmiths 161, 164
materials 164
organization of the trade 161
relationship with larger-scale
engineering 163