[ 58 ]
The true fact is, my Lord, that after Mr. Watt had obtained the patent now in diſpute, he attempted to build Steam Engines on this new plan which he had completed under all the difficulties above-mentioned; but did not ſucceed in his repeated undertakings well enough to warrant him in ſaying, he had made one Engine ſo good as the worſt of Newcomen; and in his undertaking of moſt magnitude he finally failed. This bad ſucceſs cauſed him, according to a ſtatement in a new Encyclopædia, inſerted by his conſent, to decline for many years the ſubject of Steam Engines, until nearly the period when the application was made to Parliament for a prolongation of the ſaid patent. About this period, an union commenced between Mr. Watt and the famous Mr. Boulton, of Birmingham, who had likewiſe, I have been informed, tried many ſchemes for the improvement of Steam Engines. Thus, my Lord, by compounding their knowledge, and their purſes, with all they could borrow (Mr. Wood’s pump, the main thing) they patched up what they now call their firſt Engines. Theſe Engines, it is well known, were for years much inferior in point of principle to thoſe of Newcomen; but owing to ſuperior methods of rendering the workmanſhip more perfect than in the latter,
