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The correspondence between James Hutton (1726–1797) and James Watt (1736–1819) with two letters from Hutton to george Clerk-Maxwell (1715–1784): Part II

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Pages 357-382 | Received 12 Oct 1994, Published online: 22 Aug 2006

  • A young man, native of Raiatea who, having taken refuge in Tahiti, asked to be taken to England in the Adventure when she returned early from Cook's second voyage. Placed in the care of Sir Joseph Banks. Omai took polite society by storm. In the late summer he was at the Earl of Sandwich's seat near Huntingdon with Banks and Dr Daniel Solander. They continued north on their tour of the Midlands in September 1774, visiting Buxton. McCormick E.H. Omai: Pacific Envoy Auckland University Press 1977 112 114 and B. Smith, European Vision and the South Pacific (Melbourne University Press, 1990), see Derby Mercury, 9 September 1774, 4.
  • Hutton (footnote 10, 1795), Jones J. James Hutton: Exploration and Oceanography Annals of Science 1983 40 85 81 94
  • Watt had been making thermometers earlier in the year and ‘trying the heats of water boiling from the open air to vacuo under different pressures’: letter to Dr William Small, quoted in Muirhead J.P. The Mechanical Inventions of Boulton and Watt London 1854 ii 75 75 3 vols
  • Maskelyne , N. 1775 . An account of Observations made on the Mountain Schehallien for finding its attraction . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society , 65 : 500 – 542 . G. Ranalli, ‘An Early Geophysical Estimate of the Mean Density of the Earth: Schehallien 1774’, Earth Sciences History, 3 (1984), 149–52.
  • An allusion to Swift's satire A Modest Proposal For Preventing the Children of Poor People from being a Burden to their Parents or the Country Dublin 1729 reprinted London, 1729.
  • Several of the lewd writings of the day contain fantasies of this ilk, e.g. Smollet in his poem Advice (1746) and tracts by Hill John Roe Richard Porter VincentR. Miller. The Sexual Underworld of the Enlightenment London 1982 60 64 Sexuality in Eighteenth Century Britain, edited by P.-G. Boucé (Manchester, 1982).
  • Robison , John . on his appointment to the chair of mathematics
  • Muirhead , J.P. 1854 . The Origin and Progress of the Mechanical Inventions of James Watt Vol. II , 73 – 73 . London 3 vols
  • Birmingham Central Library: A.O.B. March 1772 . Boulton Correspondence Vol. E , March , Boulton to Solander, 10
  • Hutton wrote to Boulton in May 1784 recommending both the man and the process (Birmingham City Library: A.O.B. Collection, Box H, item 306) and Black wrote to Watt in the same vein shortly afterwards (Robinson and McKie (footnote 4), 142–3). ON Cort, see Mott R. A. Henry Cort: the Great Finer Metals Society London 1983
  • 1734 . Born Carmylie Angus studied medicine in Edinburgh; Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Williamsburg, 1758–64; practised medicine in Birmingham ‘where his humane skill was ever ready to rescue [the poor] from disease and pain’ (J. Keir, Account of the Life and Writings of Thomas Day (London, 1791), 32); died Birmingham 1775.
  • Keir . 1734 . Born Carmylie 111 – 111 . Angus Muirhead (footnote 7), 250.
  • The Trustees of the Board for the Improvement of Manufactures and Fisheries in Scotland, of whom Clerk-Maxwell was one. Watt had worked for them in 1770; see Muirhead The Origin and Progress of the Mechanical Inventions of James Watt London 1854 II 304 304 3 vols
  • In 1775 Watt prepared a three-page printed document ‘Case of James Watt, Engineer, Inventor of the New Improvements upon the Steam Engine’, which he used to support his case for an extension of the 1769 patent. There was some opposition to the Bill in Parliament from those who feared that such an extension would be granting a long monopoly. In the end Boulton's consummate skills as a lobbyist proved to be decisive. Robinson E. Matthew Boulton and the Art of Parliamentary Lobbying Historical Journal 1964 7 209 229 and M. W. McCahill, ‘Peers, Patronage and the Industrial revolution 1760–1800’, Journal of British Studies, 16 (1976), 84–107.
  • Hutton's sisters Isabella Jean Sarah three excellent women, who managed his domestic affairs Playfair 99 99 footnote 9, Isabella alone survived him.
  • Delieb , E. 1971 . The Great Silver Manufactory: Matthew Boulton and the Birmingham Silversmiths 1760–1790 London
  • February 1788 . Birmingham Reference Library: A.O.B. ‘4’ February , 165 – 165 . 15 reproduced in Robinson and McKie (footnote 4),
  • It was invented in 1784 according to Symington W. Jr Symington's Atmospheric Engine 1784 Mechanics Magazine 1883 19 353 355 and 463–4.
  • Harvey , W.S. 1697 . Mr Symington's Improved Atmospheric Engine . Transactions of the Newcomen Society , 46 : 27 – 32 . W. S. Harvey and G. Downs-Rose, William Symington: Inventor and Engine Builder (London, 1980) and Anon., ‘The Invention of Steam Navigation’, Mechanics Magazine, 42 (1845), 267–71 and 333.
  • Harvey and Downs-Rose Mr Symington's Improved Atmospheric Engine Transactions of the Newcomen Society 1697 46 27 32 rightly point out that Symington ‘is one of the engineers whose history has been swamped by the amount of records left by James Watt’ (Preface). Dickinson and Jenkins (footnote 26, 1927/1981), 318 wrongly note that, after 1795, ‘no doubt [Symington's] operations were stopped by Boulton and Watt’. Harvey and Downs-Rose show instead that Symington had made at least 18 engines, quite unaffected by Watt, before the patent on the Watt engine lapsed in 1800.
  • Miller , P. 1787 . A Statement to the Council of the Royal Society, London, on Dec 20, 1787 London and P. Miller Jr, ‘A Short Narrative of the Facts relative to the Invention…of Steam Navigation’, Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 13 (1825), 81–93.
  • August 1788 . Scots Magazine Vol. 50 , August , 412 – 412 .
  • Bowie , R. 1883 . A Brief Narrative…of the late William Symington London
  • Harvey and Downs-Rose . 1697 . Mr Symington's Improved Atmospheric Engine . Transactions of the Newcomen Society , 46 : 53 – 53 .
  • Bowie . 1883 . A Brief Narrative … of the late William Symington London
  • In the opinion of Robison, however, ‘Mr Symington … has erected engines clear of Mr Watt's patent’; Robison J. Steam Engine Encyclopaedia Britannica , 3rd edn 1797 XVII 772 772 On the other hand Joseph Black thought in 1789 ‘it is only an attempt to elude Mr Watt's patent’; D. McKie and D. Kennedy, ‘On some Letters of Joseph Black and Others’, Annals of Science, 16, (1960), 129–70 (152).
  • Both Symington (114–6) and Miller (86–7) appear in the fascinating compilation by Walker W. Memoirs of the Distinguished Men of Science Living in Great Britain in the Years 1807–8 London 1864 which shows the high opinion then held of their joint activities.
  • Hutton was clearly quoting from the duplicated prospectus for Symington's Patent Steam Engine just issued in 1788, with a ‘Statement of a Comparative Trial Made Between Watt's and Symington's Steam Engines at Wanlockhead Lead Mine Scotland in Summer of 1788’ (copies in the North Riding, Yorkshire, Record Office ZNK X 2/15/7 and 2/12/27). The crucial question of the different steam pressures used by Watt and his competitors deserves proper study—see Torrens H.S. Jonathan Hornblower (1753–1815) and the Steam Engine: A Historiographic Analysis Perceptions of Great Engineers: Fact and Fantasy Smith D. Science Museum London 1994 23 34 in Both Hornblower and Symington were clearly already now using pressures higher than Watt.
  • Hutton and John Clerk of Eldin were asked to make a mineralogical survey of the island by the owner, the Duke of Atholl. Playfair (footnote 9), 73–4 and James Hutton's Theory of the Earth: the Lost Drawings Craig G.Y. Edinburgh 1978 60 60
  • Tann , J. 1981 . Mr Hornblower and his Crew: Watt Engine Pirates at the end of the Eighteenth Century . Transactions of the Newcomen Society , 51 : 95 – 109 . (96, 105).
  • Harvey and Downs-Rose . 1697 . Mr Symington's Improved Atmospheric Engine . Transactions of the Newcomen Society , 46 : 27 – 32 .
  • Rowe , J. 1993 . Cornwall in the Age of the Industrial Revolution , 2nd edn St Austell
  • Davy , H. 1818 . Hints on the Geology of Cornwall . Transactions of the Royal Geology Society of Cornwall , 1 : 38 – 50 .
  • Polwhele , R. 1803 . History of Cornwall Vol. I , 174 – 179 . Falmouth 3 vols
  • Crook , D.A. 1990 . The early history of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall 1814–1850 , The Open University . PhD thesis
  • Maton , W.G. 1797 . Observations … of the Western Counties of England Salisbury
  • Gilbert Meason (1725–1808) was one of Symington's patrons when thelatter was young, sending himto Edinburgh University where he spent a year studying medicine. The two menhad a long association. ForMeason's obituary, see Gentleman's Magazine 1808 78 1130 1130 pt ii
  • Watt , G. 1804 . Observations on Basalt . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London , 94 : 279 – 314 .
  • The real problems that Hutton faced in giving heat a central role in his theory of the earth have received special attention from historians. Gerstner P. The reaction to James Hutton's use of heat as a geological agent British Journal for the History of Science 1971 5 353 362 and R. Laudan, ‘The Problem of Consolidation in the Huttonian Tradition’, Lychnos (1978), 195–206.
  • Black , J. 1794 . An Analysis of the Water of Some Hot Springs in Iceland . Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , 3 : 95 – 126 . pt ii
  • The mill, in Southwark, was Boulton and Watt's showpiece and was much visited by fashionable society as it neared completion in 1786. In March 1791 it was burnt down by millworkers who were frightened that steam power would bring unemployment. Boulton is said to have lost £6000 and Watt £3000; Smiles Samuel Lives of Boulton and Watt London 1865 358 359
  • The output of the Anglesea copper from Parys mountain (Letter IV) had a great effect on the copper price in Cornwall. From 1788 to 1792 Thomas Williams held a monopoly of national copper production. Harris J.R. The Copper King Liverpool University Press 1964 Watt had a natural interest in seeing the price of copper as high as possible as only this would help to keep his engines in work in Cornwall.
  • There is a long passage on the origin of chalcedony in Hutton (footnote 10, 1795), I, 515–9; idem (footnote 10, 1788), 249 ff; idem (footnote 10, 1795), i., 87 ff. Hutton's problems in explaining the origin of flint are discussed by Torrens H. S. A Wiltshire pioneer in geology and his legacy Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1990 83 170 189 (176–80).
  • John Stanley visited the Faroe islands in the course of his voyage to Iceland in 1789 and brought back water from Icelandic geysers for Black to analyse: Black An Analysis of the Water of Some Hot Springs in Iceland Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1794 3 95 126 pt ii It is likely that Stanley was also the source of Hutton's specimens. J.F. West, Journal of the Stanley Expedition to the Faroe Islands and Iceland in 1789, 3 vols (Tórshavn, 1970–76).
  • Black . 1794 . An Analysis of the Water of Some Hot Springs in Iceland . Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , 3 : 95 – 126 . pt ii
  • Hutton , J. 1792 . Dissertations on Different Subjects in Natural Philosophy Edinburgh idem, A Dissertation upon the Philosophy of Heat, Light and Fire (Edinburgh, 1794); idem, An Investigation of the Principles of Knowledge, 3 vols (Edinburgh, 1794), which deals with subjects as various as philosophy, linguistics and sociology. For his theory of the earth see footnote 10.
  • The article by Scott E.L. The origins of Pneumatic medicine and its Practice in Manchester Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society 1975 117 75 92 contains further useful references.
  • D.A. and Stansfield , R.G. 1986 . Dr Thomas Beddoes and James Watt: preparatory work 1794–1796 for the Bristol Pneumatic Institute . Medical History , 30 : 276 – 302 .
  • Beddoes , T. and Watt , J. 1795 . Considerations on the Medicinal Powers and on the Production of Factitious Airs , 1st and 2nd edns Bristol both in three parts 3rd edn, corrected and enlarged, Bristol 1796.
  • Beddoes and Watt . 1796 . Considerations on the Medicinal Powers and on the Production of Factitious Airs , 2st and 2nd edns 108 – 108 . Bristol
  • Anderson , R.G.W. 1978 . The Playfair Collection and the Teaching of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh 1713–1858 115 – 116 . Edinburgh
  • This is a Cornish word for the quartz porphyry ‘granitic’ dykes that occur throughout Cornwall. Embrey P.G. Symes R.F. Minerals of Cornwall and Devon London 1987 6 6 9 and 12. Their origins were still being debated in 1818: H. Davy, ‘Granite veins at Porth Just’, Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, 1 (1818), 24–5.
  • For contemporary knowledge of the mineralogy of both the Wrekin and Malvern, see Townson R. Tracts and Observations in Natural History and Physiology London 1799 162 164 and 216–20. Watt and Townson had been in contact since 1789 so it is possible that Townson had supplied some of the specimens now sent to Hutton (who had earlier proposed Townson as F.R.S.E. in 1791).
  • When Watt began to withdraw from business he built a house at Heathfield and moved there from Harper's Hill in 1790. It was there that he had his famous garret workshop. He also constructed a forge in the back yard. Smiles Lives of Boulton and Watt London 1865 460 460
  • Hutton . 1792 . A Dissertation upon the Philosophy of Heat, Light and Fire Edinburgh
  • Letter from Black to Henry Menish Edinburgh University Library 1791 December Gen 873/111/228-32, 232r and v.
  • Hall , James . 1805 . Experiments on Whinstone and Lava . Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , 5 : 43 – 75 . (44).
  • Hall . 1805 . Experiments on Whinstone and Lava . Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , 5 : 43 – 75 .
  • Watt , G. 1804 . Observations on Basalt . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London , 94 : 279 – 314 .
  • Hall , J. 1812 . Account of a Series of Experiments, showing the Effects of Compression in Modifying the Action of Heat . Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , 6 : 71 – 185 .
  • Hall tried a similar experiment with ‘sawdust of fir’ and found that it was ‘apt to destroy the apparatus’; Hall Experiments on Whinstone and Lava Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1805 5 152 152

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