Lives of Boulton and Watt. Principally from the Original Soho Mss

Dawnings of Steam Power—The Marquis of Worcester.

Table of Contents

When Matthew Boulton entered into partnership with James Watt, he gave up the ormolu business in which he had before been principally engaged. He had been accustomed to supply George III. with articles of this manufacture, but ceased to wait upon the King for orders after embarking in his new enterprise. Some time after, he appeared at the Royal Levee and was at once recognised by the King. “Ha! Boulton,” said he, “it is long since we have seen you at Court. Pray, what business are you now engaged in?” “I am engaged, your Majesty, in the production of a commodity which is the desire of kings.” “And what is that? what is that?” asked the King. “Power, your Majesty,” replied Boulton, who proceeded to give a description of the great uses to which the steam-engine was capable of being applied.

If the theory of James Mill[1] be true, that government is founded on the desire which exists among men to secure and enjoy the products of labour, by whatsoever means produced, probably the answer of Boulton to George III. was not far from correct. In the infancy of nations this desire manifested itself in the enforcement of labour by one class upon another, in the various forms of slavery and serfdom. To evade the more onerous and exhausting kinds of bodily toil, men were impelled to exercise their ingenuity in improving old tools and inventing new ones, while, to increase production, they called the powers of nature to their aid. They tamed the horse, and made him their servant; they caught the winds as they blew, and the waters as they fell, and applied their powers to the driving of mills and machines of various kinds.

But there was a power greater by far than that of horses, wind, or water,—a power of which poets and philosophers had long dreamt,—capable of being applied alike to the turning of mills, the raising of water, the rowing of ships, the driving of wheel-carriages,  ..