66 "five or six times that quantity, of the most detestable kind. Brandy, rum, and some other strong liquors, closed this philo"sophic banquet." And for the solid repast with all its fluid accompaniments,-" all this intolerable deal of sack,"-each of the guests paid "seven livres, four sols French money." With justice does the good M. Faujas remark "This was not "dear;" and he sympathetically adds "The great Corneille, "Molière, Despreaux, La Fontaine, and Racine, used to take a bottle now and then in a tavern; and they were neither "the worse friends, nor the worse poets, for it." 66 Science, indeed, seems, at the symposium which he thus describes, to have appeared to M. de St. Fond in that form, 66 6 6 quæ, si oculis cerneretur, mirabiles amores, ut ait Plato, "excitaret sapientiæ!"* And, although the sçavoir vivre of the tavern in London may not have strictly exemplified the succulent doctrines of the Almanach des Gourmands,' or complied with all the gustatory directions of the Manuel 'des Amphitryons,' yet so highly was the honest Frenchman delighted with the lively but decorous gaiety which he had witnessed, as to have imagined that a similar system of "con"vivial and modest banquets" among the learned men of his own country might have averted some of the worst crimes of its regicidal revolution ;-crimes, which the exalted but hapless names of Malesherbes, Bailly, Lavoisier, and Condorcet, recall to the horror and grief of humanity. "In France they "now order these things better;" and all who have enjoyed the privilege of sharing in the festive entertainments frequent among the men of letters and science in the metropolis of that great and polished nation, can bear testimony to the simple but elegant refinement, the warm-hearted hospitality, the love of the Muses and admiration of the Graces, by which they are distinguished. Let us indulge the hope, that the frequent recurrence of scenes so congenial to the wishes of M. Faujas, may ensure all those happy results which he fancied, (perhaps not very unreasonably),-that he foresaw in their due observance! *Cic. De Off. I. cap. v. CHAPTER XXIII. PROPOSED UNIFORMITY OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 66 PRIESTLEY THE LUNAR SORIOTS AT BIRMINGHAM MR. CIETY DR. DARWIN MACHINE OF MARLY MENTS OF STEAM-ENGINE PATENTS- TRIALS AT LAW PARTIES TO THE ACTIONS ARGUMENTS AGAINST AND FOR THE VALIDITY OF THE EVIDENCE- - J. BRAMAH AND PATENT OF 1769- NATURE OF THE T. TREDGOLD VERDICTS IN FAVOUR OF THE PATENTEES- VALIDITY OF THE PATENT OF 1769 CONCLUSIVELY ESTABLISHED. MR. WATT'S chemical studies in 1783 having led him, towards the end of that year, to make some calculations from experiments of Lavoisier and De La Place, and to compare them with others made by Mr. Kirwan, he wrote to the latter gentleman, "I had a great deal of trouble in reducing the weights and measures to speak the same language; and Imany of the German experiments become still more diffi"cult from their using different weights and different divi"sions of them in different parts of that empire. It is "therefore a very desirable thing to have these difficulties ❝ removed, and to get all philosophers to use pounds divided "in the same manner, and I flatter myself that may be "accomplished if you, Dr. Priestley, and a few of the French experimenters will agree to it; for the utility is so evident, "that every thinking person must immediately be convinced "of it. My proposal is briefly this; let the 66 Philosophical pound consist of 10 ounces, or 10,000 grains. 10 drachms, or 1,000 100 grains, or 100 "Let all elastic fluids be measured by the ounce measure of "water, by which the valuation of different cubic inches will *14th November, 1783. "be avoided, and the common decimal tables of specific gra"vities will immediately give the weights of those elastic "fluids. 66 "If all philosophers cannot agree on one pound or one grain, let every one take his own pound or his own grain; "it will affect nothing except doses of medicines, which must "be corrected as is now done; but as it would be much "better that the identical pound was used by all, I would "propose that the Amsterdam or Paris pound be assumed as "the standard, being now the most universal in Europe: it "is to our avoirdupois pound as 109 is to 100. Our avoirdupois pound contains 7000 of our grains, and the Paris "pound 7630 of our grains, but it contains 9376 Paris grains, "so that the division into 10,000 would very little affect the "Paris grain. I prefer dividing the pound afresh to beginning with the Paris grain, because I believe the pound is "very general, but the grain local. 66 66 "Dr. Priestley has agreed to this proposal, and has referred "it to you to fix upon the pound if you otherwise approve of "it. I shall be happy to have your opinion of it as soon as convenient, and to concert with you the means of making "it universal. I have some hopes that the foot 66 may be fixed by the pendulum and a measure of water, "and a pound derived from that; but in the interim let us "at least assume a proper division, which from the nature of "it must be intelligible as long as decimal arithmetic is used." "As to the precise foot or pound," he afterwards adds, in writing to Mr. Magellan, "I do not look upon it to be very material, in chemistry at least. Either the common English "foot may be adopted according to your proposal, which has "the advantage that a cubic foot is exactly 1000 ounces, "consequently the present foot and ounce would be retained; or a pendulum which vibrates 100 times a minute may be adopted for the standard, which would make the foot 14.2 "of our present inches, and the cubic foot would be very "exactly a bushel, and would weigh 101 of the present pounds, so that the present pound would not be much "altered. But I think that by this scheme the foot would 66 66 66 "be too large, and that the inconvenience of changing all "the foot measures and things depending on them, would be "much greater than changing all the pounds, bushels, gal"lons, &c. I therefore give the preference to those plans "which retain the foot and ounce." Alas, at the distance of three-quarters of a century from such philosophical and practical proposals, the prospect of a universal system of weights and measures seems almost as remote as that of a universal language! About the time when Mr. Watt presented to the Royal Society his memorable Thoughts on the Constituent Parts ' of Water,' the neighbourhood of Birmingham was remarkable for the number of kindred spirits, all devoted to the pursuit of natural knowledge, and filled with mutual esteem and affection, who there found profitable pleasure in each other's society. Besides Mr. Watt and Mr. Boulton, there were among that number Dr. Darwin, Dr. Withering, Mr. Keir, Mr. Galton, Mr. Edgeworth, and Dr. Priestley ;-all of them luminaries not unworthy to revolve round Watt as their central sun, but also shining with more than merely reflected light. Priestley, who came to reside at Birmingham in 1780, and has repeatedly acknowledged the happiness he experienced in living near Mr. Watt, has thus noticed those monthly repasts of which his philosophical friends and himself partook at their respective houses in turn, and which became well known as the meetings of the Lunar Society. "I "consider my settlement at Birmingham as the happiest " event in my life; being highly favourable to every object I “had in view, philosophical or theological. In the former "respect I had the convenience of good workmen of every "kind, and the society of persons eminent for their knowledge of chemistry; particularly Mr. Watt, Mr. Keir, and "Dr. Withering. These, with Mr. Boulton and Dr. Darwin, "who soon left us by removing from Lichfield to Derby, "Mr. Galton, and afterwards Mr. Johnson of Kenilworth and "myself, dined together every month, calling ourselves the "Lunar Society, because the time of our meeting was near 66 "the full-moon," * "in order," as he elsewhere says, "to "have the benefit of its light in returning home." From an invitation from Mr. Watt to Mr. Wedgwood to attend one of the dinners of the Society, we learn that it was customary for the philosophic convives "to dine at two o'clock, and not to "part till eight in the evening." Mr. Watt, in writing to Dr. Darwin to remind him of his engagement to attend another of those friendly meetings, at once social and scientific, gives a lively bill of fare of the subjects proposed for the consideration of the party;—some expressions used in which, viz., "it is to be determined "whether or not heat is a compound of phlogiston and em 66 66 pyreal air," "what light is made of, and also how to make "it," as well as the still more curious ones of Darwin's reply, "I can tell you some secrets in return for yours, viz., "that atmospheric gas is composed of light and the earth of "water (aqueous earth),—that water is composed of aqueous gas, which is displaced from its earth by oil of vitriol,” ‡may be held to have foreshadowed, with more or less distinctness, those researches which ended in the discovery of "what water is made of," and also, as the discoverer quaintly expresses it, "how to make it."§ Thus to Darwin, the general design of whose somewhat fantastic but often elegant poetry was, as he informs us, "to enlist Imagination under "the banners of Science," may now be assigned some of the credit of having been a pioneer in the march towards that great discovery:-a merit, however, which he never claimed for himself, both he and Mr. Watt having apparently given, at the time, no more than a passing attention to the shot thus fired, probably at random, but with a curious approximation to the mark which was afterwards effectually hit. For the speculation,-whether we call it imagination or science,— * Memoirs of Dr. Priestley, by 'himself,' p. 97. 1806. Mr. Watt to Dr. Darwin, Birmingham, January 3rd, 1781; 'Me'chanical Inventions of Watt,' vol. ii. p. 123. Dr. Darwin to Mr. Watt, Jan. 6, 1781; Mechanical Inventions of 'Watt,' vol. ii. p. 124. § Mr. Watt to Mr. Fry of Bristol, p. 329, suprà. |