Memorials of the lineage, early life, education and development of the genius of James Watt

1 72 MEMORIALS OF
those speculations which, though so auspiciously begun, had for a
time been practically suspended.
We are not aware to what extent, or with what regularity, Mr.
Watt was emplo} T ed in the experiments and improvements going-
forward about tins time at the Carron Iron- Works. It is certain,
however, that for a series of years prior to the failure of Dr. Roebuck's
magnificent undertakings, and Mr. Watt's consequent settlement at
Soho, about the year 1774-75, his principal professional occupations
were those connected with the business of civil-engineering, or survey-
ing, as it then continued to be called. Among many other surveys
and estimates furnished by him for public works in Scotland, subse-
quently to his quitting his atelier within the CoUege of Glasgow, he
was employed, in 1769, to survey the river Clyde; and on 20th
October of that year gave in a report to the magistrates of Glasgow,
showing the depths of water at given points. In this report by Mr.
Watt no mention is made of any such plan as locking the river, which
Mr. Smeaton had reported practicable, though the idea was aban-
doned. Although Mr. Watt's report makes no suggestion, it is most
probable that he took the rational view of the matter, which was that
also of the several engineers who followed him, and who suggested the
" deepening of the channel," with the various means of effecting that
object. It need only be added, that when it is reflected what, at no
very distant period, were the extremely limited capacities for naviga-
tion, of that portion of the river Clyde more particularly embraced in
the soundings and surveys of Smeaton, Watt, Golborne, Rennie, and
immediately subsequent engineers, — compared with the present state
of its channel, offering a depth of water sufficient for the passage of
the largest merchantmen, and affording means of all but uninterrupted
communication to steam-vessels at almost all states of the tide, — the
operations here effected cannot but be regarded as without parallel
in this country, and as affording an example of one of the most