Thomas Newcomen: A Commemorative Symposium for the 250th Anniversary of his Death

REFERENCES

• Quoted in Voltaire's England, Ed. Desmond Flower ( London, The Folio Society, 1950), p. ix.
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• For further details of Meres and the Committee, see L. T. C. Rolt and J. S. Allen, The Steam Engine of Thomas Newcomen ( Hartington, Moorlands Press, 1977), Ch. 4; Alan Smith, 'Steam and the City: The Committee of Proprietors of the Invention for Raising Water by Fire, 1716-38', Trans. Newc. Soc., vol. 49; and Alan Smith, 'Apothecaries Hall and the First Steam Engines', The Pharmaceutical Historian (to be published). On the objects of his mission, see Cumbria Record Office, Lonsdale MSS, D/Lons/W: Lowther/Spedding, 2 Dec. 1725.
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• Paris, Archives Nationales ( AN): Correspondance du ContrSlleur-Giniral (MS) G' .34. Dodun to the Comte de Morville. A copy of the order, dated 17 March 1725, accompanies the copy letter. See below for a note on translations in this paper.
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• Jean-Louis de l'Etendart, Marquis de Bully (d. 1740), was military governor of Menin 1704–06 and one of the hereditary lodgekeepers of the royal park of the Chateau de Madrid, in Neuilly. Bulletin de la Sociiti Historique d'Auteuilet de Passy, vol. 2,152–3. For his Passy house, see Leopold Mar, 'Passy en 1726', ibid., vol. 4, 165–168 (1902); Georges Cucuel, 'Histoire d'une Maison de Passy de 1734 a 1873', ibid., vol. 8, 142–150 (1914); and Henry Lemonnier, 'La Machine k Vapeurde Passy', Proces-Verbaux de la Commission du Vieux Paris, 1918,4-7 (1920). The house, demolished in 1911, was on the site of the present N o. 13, rue Raynouard; and the engine on the site of No. 22, Avenue du President Kennedy.
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• AN, G'.34 (25 March 1725).
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• AN, G'.35 ( Dodun to the Due de Gesvres, Governor of Paris, 5 June 1725).
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• G. J. Hollister-Short, 'The Introduction of the Newcomen Engine into Europe', Trans. Newc. Soc., vol. 48, 11–24 (1978); and 'A new technology and its diffusion', Industrial Archaeology, vol. 13, 9–41 and 103–128 (1978).
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• Germain Boffrand ( 1667–1754) was one of the royal architects of Louis XV, inspector of bridges and roads, and first architect to Duke Leopold of Lorraine. He rebuilt Leopold's palace at Luniville in 1703–06, decorated the Palais Soubise (present home of the French National Archives), designed the main front of the library of the Paris Arsenal, and has many other works to his credit. See Alexandre Joly, Histoire de Lorraine au XVIlle Siicle: Le ChSteau de Luneville (Paris, 1859); J.-P. Babelon, Histoire et Description des BStiments des Archives Nationales (Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1969), 85; also Henry Lemonnier, 'Les premiires Machines a vapeur a Paris en 1726', Proces-Verbaux de la Commission Municipale du VieuxParis, 1916, 248–257 (Paris, 1918); and Boffrand's own Livre d' Architecture(Paris, 1745).
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• Philippe Vayringe (1684–1746), locksmith and watchmaker to Duke Leopold, studied under Desaguliers in 1721–22 and took back to Lorraine many ideas and inventions, which were demonstrated at the chateau at Luneville to the amazement, among others, of Voltaire. See Baillot.de Ligny, 'Philippe Vayringe', Revue d'Austrasie, n.s., vol. I (Metz, 1840), 554–566; Emile Eude, Histoire Documentaire de la Mecanique Franfaise (Paris, 1902), 17; Joly, op. cit. (8); and Voltaire, Oeuvres Completes Tome 33,496 (Paris, 1880): letter of 15 May 1735 to Thieriot.
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• Boffrand petitioned several times for letters patent for his two devices. His first petition, which is unfortunately undated, described his Savery and Newcomen designs as two variants of the same machine 'which was invented in England, is not yet known elsewhere and although its inventors have been most careful to hide its secret, he has penetrated all its workings and has even got it into a more perfect state than it is presently in England'. The MS of this petition is in the Bibliothque de l'Arsenal ( Fonds dEspagnac, MS 4258 fo 200–202). The text was published in Revue Retrospective, tome xiv (Paris, 1891), 158–161, and reproduced in Lemonnier (1918) supra. In a subsequent petition, which was sent by the Controller-General to the Academy of Sciences for scrutiny on 1 July 1726, Boffrand claimed that 'his two machines were finished a year before the one the Englishman has built at Passy...'. Academic des Sciences (AdS), dossier de seance, 11 Jan. 1727, MS.
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• The draft of the Academy's report on Boffrand's claim states 'He also showed us. ..a pass-out for the said machine dated 10 July 1725 [issued] by the officers at the Saint-Jacques gate, so it would not have to pay entry dues when it was wished to bring it back into Paris, signed Coutin, Cretin and Charpentier, from which it appears these machines were built at that time'. AdS, dossier de stance, 11 Jan. 1727, MS.
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• AN., Z'H. 238: Sentences de Police ( MS): 'Cours de la Riviire interrompu'.
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• AN., Bureau de Ville, Affaires Particuliires (1725), MS HM934. A fair copy is in H2.1854 (see note 14 below).
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• ibid. ( Fair copies of these papers are also enrolled in the MS Register of Deliberations 1724–1726: H2.1854, ff 255, 271 and 272.)
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• John May's identity is still obscure. An apothecary of that name, who practised in Bishopsgate Street and whom Meres would certainly have known, died in 1744. Two different versions of May's signature survive in Paris; neither resembles the signature on the apothecary's will—P.C.C. Prob. 11.745 (56)—kindly provided by Dr. T. D. Whittet. May is described in the court fine record as 'Le Sieur Dumay'.
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• Robert de Cotte ( 1656–1735) was First Architect to the King: and Director of the Royal Academy of Architecture. He lived in Passy. See J.-L. d'Iberville-Moreau, Robert de Cotte: His Career as an Architect and the Organisation of the Service des BStiments, unpublished thesis (Ph.D.), University of London, 1972. His son Jules-Robert (1683–1767) was a less eminent member of the Academy of Architecture.
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• Proces-Verbaux de I'Acadimie Royale Architecture (1671–1793), Ed. H. Lemonnier, tome IV, 318 (Paris, 1916); Academic des Sciences, dossier de stance (MS) 11 January 1727; Neuer Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen, 1726, No. II, 10 (Leipzig, 1726?); Das Merckwurdige Wien &c„ Feb. 1727, 75 (Vienna, n.d.).
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• Mercure de France, Dec. 1725, 2889 and 2959; Sammlung von Natur= und Medicin &c„ Dec. 1725 ( Leipzig, 1727), 686 and 687.
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• E. J. F. Barbier, Journal, Tome 1, 229 (Paris, 1847).
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• Sammlung &c. op. cit. ( 18), April 1726, 509.
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• AdS., loose MSS (1726). May's fractured French is unmistakeable.
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• Reni-Antoine Ferchault de Riaumur (1683–1757) was the main influence behind the Academy's interest in technology. He fook charge from 1708 of their published descriptions of arts and crafts (Descriptions des Arts et Mitiers). He has been called the Pliny of the 18th century'.
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• Louis-Lion Pajot, Comte d'Ons-en-Bray (1678–1754), a confidant of Louis XIV, was Director-General of Posts from 1708. A wealthy and well-connected man, he knew Huygens and Boerhaave and maintained a large and comprehensive collection of models and scientific instruments, which he bequeathed to the Academy.
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• Bodelian Library, Douce MS 235: 'Continuation of My Journal' (possibly by Walter, second son of Thomas, Lord Butler), 44. Kindly provided by Professor J. R. Harris.
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• Copv of a letter from Lord Percival to Daniel Dering, dated Paris, 4 May 1726: British Library, Add. MS 47031, pencil foliations 164v and I65r. The late Dr. Rhys Jenkins quoted an excerpt from this letter in his article on Newcomen reprinted in Trans. Newc. Soc.. 4 (1923–24). 128, using the version published by the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 1879. The full text became available in 1950, when the Egmont MSS were given to the British Museum. For the muids, see note on units, below.
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• AdS. Proces-Verbaux (MS), 11 May 1726 ( emphasis added).
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• Sammhmg &c.. May 1726. 638–639.
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• See below, page 000.
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• AdS., dossier de seance (MS), 11 Jan. 1727.
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• ibid.
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• AdS., Proces-Verbaux ( MS), XLV fo 211.
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• Proces-Verbaux du Conseil du Commerce ( MS), AN., FIJ.73, ff 477–478.
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• ibid. Mathulon was a persistent author of schemes for perpetual motion, squaring circles, etc.
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• AdS., dossier de seance (MS), 22 July 1726.
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• ibid., 11 Jan. 1727; Bibliothique Nationale (BN.), MS Fran(ais, 22234 fo 37.
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• BN.. MS Fr. 22231 fo 145. May's spelling, like his French was somewhat fractured.
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• Bignon to May, 11 Sept. 1726. BN, MS Fr. 22234 fo 41v.
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• AN, F,1.73 fo 675. See note on translation, below.
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• BN. MS Fr. 22231 fo 147; and AdS, dossier de seance. 11 May 1726.
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• BN, MS Fr. 22234, fo 53v.
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• BN. MS Fr. 22232 fo 260.
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• Gallon. Recueil des Machines &c.. Tome 7, 242 (Paris, 1777).
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• AN, F'2.73. fo 675; quoted in Bertrand Gille el at., 'La Machine & vapeur en France au XVIIIe siicle'. Techniques el Civilisations. vol. 2, 1953, 152–163.
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• The tariff survives in AdS, dossier de seance (MS) 11 May 1726. It is reproduced in Annex 2.
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• AdS, dossier de stance (MS) 11 Jan. 1727.
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• AdS. Proces-Verbaux (MS), Tome XLVI fo 9–10.
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• Gallon, op. cit., Tome 4, 191–197 ( Paris, 1735).
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• BN. MS Fr. 22234 fo 97.
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• ibid., fo 103.
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• Idem.
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• ibid., fo 104; and Proces-Verbaux. Tome XLVI fo 221.
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• ibid., fo 101 and 109.
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• ibid., fo 107 v ( emphasis added).
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• AN. F12.74, fo 507.
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• AN, Fl2.682. The MS is amended in several hands.
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• AN. F12.74 fo 526.
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• AN, o1.71 fo 419.
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• Suite de la Clef ou Journal Historique sur les Matiires du Temps. Sept. 1727, Tome XXII, 231–232.
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• Histoire de I'Academic Royale des Sciences. Annee 1726, 71 (Paris, 1728).
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• Royal Society MSS, Early Letters B.2/88.
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• ibid., B. 2/90.
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• Hollister-Short. op. cit. (7).
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• AN. G.034, 35. 36. passini.
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• AN, H2017.T.3901. See also LeClerdu Brillet, Traile de la Police (Paris, 1738), 388; J. C. Nemeitz, Sejour de Paris (Leyden, 1727), 390–391; and Capt. Cherriire, "La Lutte contre I'lncendie, etc.' in J. Hayem ( ed.), Mimoires et Documents pour servir l’Histoire du Commerce et de l’Industrie en France (2nd series) (Paris,1912), 117–225.
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