The Most Powerful Idea in the World Part 14

CHAPTER EIGHT: A FIELD THAT IS ENDLESS.

1 Steam engine components were a promising enough source Raistrick, Dynasty of Iron Founders.

2 by way of comparison, Watt's 1770 salary Muirhead, Life of James Watt.

3 In 1772, Glasgow's recently established Bank of Ayr John Lord, Capital and Steam-Power (London: Frank Ca.s.s, 1966).

4 Roebuck testified Scherer, "Invention and Innovation in the Watt-Boulton Steam Engine Venture."

5 "value the engine at a farthing" Birmingham Central Library and Adam Matthew Publications, The Industrial Revolution: A Doc.u.mentary History. Series one: The Boulton and Watt Archive and the Matthew Boulton Papers from the Birmingham Central Library.

6 He persuaded the other claimants Marshall, James Watt.

7 "The business I am here about" Ibid.

8 "we might give up the present patent" Scherer, "Invention and Innovation in the Watt-Boulton Steam Engine Venture."

9 "the most important single event" Eric Robinson, "Matthew Boulton and the Art of Parliamentary Lobbying," The Historical Journal 7, no. 2, 1964.

10 "and whereas, in order to manufacture" Scherer, "Invention and Innovation in the Watt-Boulton Steam Engine Venture."

11 The British Society of Arts Joel Mokyr, "Mercantilism, The Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution," Conference in Honor of Eli Heckscher, Stockholm, May 2003.

12 "a Number of Scientific Gentlemen" Marshall, James Watt.

13 "I rejoice at the well doing of Willey Engine" Boulton to Watt, March 1776, in Robinson and Musson, James Watt and the Steam Revolution.

14 "engines of mortality of all descriptions" Wallace, Social Context of Innovation.

15 "a cylinder attached to a spindle" Usher, History of Mechanical Inventions.

16 In 1800, boring a 64-inch cylinder Eugene S. Ferguson, "Metallurgical and Machine-Tool Developments," in Kranzberg and Pursell, eds., Technology in Western Civilization.

17 "unsound, and totally useless" Robinson and Musson, James Watt and the Steam Revolution.

18 "I wish to do all in the best manner" Birmingham Central Library and Adam Matthew Publications, The Industrial Revolution: A Doc.u.mentary History. Series Three: The Papers of James Watt and His Family Formerly Held at Doldowlod House.

19 If the new design caught on David L. Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (New York: W.W. Norton, 1998).

20 "With hardly room to move their bodies" E. D. Clarke, Tour Through the South of England, quoted in Howard Jones, Steam Engines.

21 Adventurers, in turn, appointed "captains" Anthony Burton, Richard Trevithick, Giant of Steam (London: Aurum Press, 2000).

22 "shareholders might grumble" Ibid.

23 One of them, the Great County Adit Ibid.

24 88 lb. in London Hills, Power from Steam.

25 "raise as much water as two Horses" Ibid.

26 As a result of the hostility Ibid.

27 "all the cast iron" Ibid.

28 at least one Boulton & Watt engine was too large Ibid.

29 It was in response to these demands Ibid.

30 "All the world are agape" Marshall, James Watt.

31 "I think that these mills represent" Birmingham Central Library and Adam Matthew Publications, The Industrial Revolution: A Doc.u.mentary History. Series One: The Boulton and Watt Archive and the Matthew Boulton Papers from the Birmingham Central Library.

32 "The technical advance which characterizes" Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization (New York: Harcourt, 1934).

33 "continuous rotary motion" Lynn White, "The Act of Invention: Causes, Contexts, Continuities, and Consequences," Technology and Culture 3, no. 4, March 1962.

34 Arabs were using them White, Medieval Technology and Social Change.

35 The earliest visual evidence of a crankshaft Ibid.

36 "to render the motion more regular and uniform" Hills, Power from Steam.

37 Watt had not believed George Selgin and John Turner, "James Watt as Intellectual Monopolist: Comment on Boldrin and Levine," International Economic Review 47, no. 4, November 2006.

38 "I know the contrivance is my own" Watt to Boulton, April 28, 1781, in Robinson and Musson, James Watt and the Steam Revolution.

39 "timmer [timber]... turned on my little lathey [lathe]" "William Murdock" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

40 "I wish William could be brought to do" Ibid.

41 "the most active man and best engine erector I ever saw" Birmingham Central Library and Adam Matthew Publications, The Industrial Revolution: A Doc.u.mentary History. Series Three: The Papers of James Watt and His Family Formerly Held at Doldowlod House.

42 "gave the additional advantage" Hills, Power from Steam.

43 "for certain new methods" Ibid.

44 "I wish you could supply me with a draughtsman" Samuel Smiles, Lives of Boulton and Watt. Princ.i.p.ally from the original Soho mss. Comprising also a history of the invention and introduction of the steam engine (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1865).

45 "the neatest drawing I had ever made" Birmingham Central Library and Adam Matthew Publications, The Industrial Revolution: A Doc.u.mentary History. Series One: The Boulton and Watt Archive and the Matthew Boulton Papers from the Birmingham Central Library.

46 One consequence was that Pacey, Maze of Ingenuity.

47 "upon making Engines cheap, as well as good" Robinson and Musson, James Watt and the Steam Revolution.

48 "scarce heard in the building where they are erected" Hills, Power from Steam.

49 "one of the most ingenious" Birmingham Central Library and Adam Matthew Publications, The Industrial Revolution: A Doc.u.mentary History. Series One: The Boulton and Watt Archive and the Matthew Boulton Papers from the Birmingham Central Library.

50 "I am more proud" Birmingham Central Library and Adam Matthew Publications, The Industrial Revolution: A Doc.u.mentary History. Series Three: The Papers of James Watt and His Family Formerly Held at Doldowlod House.

51 "the millers are determined to be masters of us" Lord, Capital and Steam-Power.

CHAPTER NINE: QUITE SPLENDID WITH A FILE.

1 "The Artist who can make an Instrument" Jeffrey Kastner, "National Insecurity," Cabinet Magazine 22, Summer 2006.

2 "a LOCK, constructed on a new and infallible Principle" J. A. Bramah, Dissertation on the Construction of Locks (Goldsmiths-Kress Library of Economic Literature, no. 13077.3, Research Publications: New Haven, CT, 1976).

3 Even when Bramah promoted Maudslay Roe, English and American Tool Builders.

4 Unable to persuade Bramah A. W. Skempton, Civil Engineers and Engineering in Britain, 16001830 (Aldershot, Hamps.h.i.+re, UK, and Brookfield, VT, USA: Variorum, 1996).

5 "the indefatigable care which he took" "Henry Maudslay" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. British Academy: from the earliest times to the year 2000.

6 "it was a pleasure to see him handle a tool" "Henry Maudslay" in Ibid.

7 "a 'critical ma.s.s' of inventive activity" Carolyn C. Cooper, "The Portsmouth System of Manufacture," Technology and Culture 25, no. 2, April 1984, quoting William Parker.

8 A single s.h.i.+p of the line Ibid.

9 "Set of engines, tools, instruments" Ibid.

10 More significant was Samuel Bentham John Richards, A Treatise on the Construction and Operation of Wood-working Machines: Including a History of the Origin and Progress of the Manufacture of Wood-working Machinery (London, New York: E. & F.N. Spon, 1872).

11 "a perfect treatise on the subject" Roe, English and American Tool Builders.

12 In 1786, while in Russia Ibid.

13 "a Propos of my brother's inventions" Cooper, "The Portsmouth System of Manufacture."

14 "roaming on the esplanade of Fort Montgomery" Richard Beamish and Gerald C. Levy, Memoir of the Life of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, Civil Engineer, Vice-President of the Royal Society, Corresponding Member of the Inst.i.tute of France, &c. (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862).

15 "two or three at a time" Cooper, "The Portsmouth System of Manufacture."

16 The design, however, specified Ibid.

17 His machines... included power saws Roe, English and American Tool Builders.

18 Maudslay's fee for constructing the machines Cooper, "The Portsmouth System of Manufacture."

19 That agreement guaranteed "Marc Isambard Brunel" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

20 He didn't come close to recouping Beamish and Levy, Memoir of the Life of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel.

21 "an output greater" Roe, English and American Tool Builders.

22 "set fire to the dockyards" Cooper, "The Portsmouth System of Manufacture."

23 "new combined steam engines" Hills, Power from Steam.

24 the planned expansion "Matthew Murray" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

25 It wasn't until 1788 Selgin and Turner, "James Watt as Intellectual Monopolist: Comment on Boldrin and Levine."

26 "the ungrateful, idle, insolent Hornblowers" Birmingham Central Library and Adam Matthew Publications, The Industrial Revolution: A Doc.u.mentary History. Series Three: The Papers of James Watt and His Family Formerly Held at Doldowlod House.

27 "if patentees are to be regarded" Stirk, "Intellectual Property and the Role of Manufacturers."

28 "Our cause is good" Smiles, Lives of Boulton and Watt.

29 "monstrous stupidity" Roe, English and American Tool Builders.

30 "I think we should confine our contentions" Birmingham Central Library and Adam Matthew Publications, The Industrial Revolution: A Doc.u.mentary History. Series Three: The Papers of James Watt and His Family Formerly Held at Doldowlod House.

31 "a sufficient action against the piston" Hills, Power from Steam.

32 Maudslay, on the other hand Skempton, Civil Engineers and Engineering in Britain, 16001830.

33 "A zealous promoter of the arts and sciences" Ibid.

CHAPTER TEN: TO GIVE ENGLAND THE POWER OF COTTON.

1 Lombe was the son of a woolen weaver Anthony Calladine, "Lombe's Mill: An Exercise in Reconstruction," Industrial Archaeology 16, no. 1, Autumn 1993.