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

JAMES WATT. 207
tion had begun to manifest itself here and elsewhere. It was in great
measure the spirit and the character of the times. Numberless and
protracted failures, however, far too generally marked the first rude
essays made to attain the objects aimed at. In the infancy of those
mechanical arts which belong peculiarly to our modern times, this
might be admitted to be in a great degree, perhaps, inevitable. But
there was more than merely the delay and temporary frustration of
cherished schemes, in consequence of immature plans or unperfected
experiment, evils to which the designs of the most apt and capable
are ever more or less subject. Blunders in practice of the most
obvious and palpable description were far from rare ; and in too many
instances guess-work and blind experimenting were all that were
relied upon for ultimate success. 1 To an eye like that of Watt, the
real cause of both these evils could not but be quite apparent. In
the estimation of the philosopher whose own rule of procedure was so
purely scientific, and based on a mental process so rigidly inductive,
offences of this last nature hardly admitted of pardon or even of
palliation. The truth is, however, few workmen were qualified to
do engine-work at this time, unless they came down directly from
Soho itself, — the " millwrights" of those days having little practical
experience in the nice adjustments of the Steam, or Fire-engine, as it
was then called. Being even at that time a " new power," the knOW-
Buchanan on the Economy of Fuel. ' An illustration of the guess-work in experi-
Gregory's MechanicB. menting to which reference is made, might be
Tredgold on the Strength of Cast Iron. afforded by an account of the first efforts to
Lanz and Betancourt's Analytical Essay on the arrange the machinery of the Comet — the first
Construction of Machines. successful steamboat — so as to make motion in her
Kelly's Spherics and Nautical Astronomy. case a bare fait-accompli. Many other examples
Keith's Theory and Practice of Plane and Sphe- could be cited, which were immediately anterior
rical Trigonometry. to the period under consideration, and of which
M'Laurin's Algebra. Mr. Watt could not be ignorant. Allusion is
M'Laurin's Fluxions. made to these matters not in any invidious spirit,
Lacroix on the Differential and Integral Calculus but simply as exemplifying the actual state of
■ — Translated. practical and scientific knowledge at the time
Attwood on Rectilinear Motion and Rotation. referred to.