CHAPTER V.

MR. WATT'S EMPLOYMENT BY THE COLLEGE OF GLASGOW

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HIS ESTABLISH

MENT WITHIN ITS WALLS AS MATHEMATICAL-INSTRUMENT-MAKER TO THE UNIVERSITY PROGRESS IN HIS BUSINESS SHOP-KEEPING - HIS CONSTRUCTION OF ORGANS AND OTHER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS-INSTRUMENTS OF HIS MANUFACTURE STILL IN EXISTENCE -CHANGE OF ABODEHIS MARRIAGE - MACHINE FOR DRAWING IN PERSPECTIVE.

AN occasion soon presented itself for the advantageous employment of that little stock in trade which we have just described, as well as of the newly-acquired skill of its owner. On the 25th of October, 1756, he writes from Glasgow to his father:-"I would have come down [to Greenock] today, but that there are some instruments that are come "from Jamaica that Dr. Dick desired that I would help to unpack, which are expected to-day." The instruments here spoken of formed a valuable collection, which had been completed at great cost by the best makers in London, for their late proprietor Mr. Alexander Macfarlane, a merchant, long resident in Jamaica, and a cadet of the ancient feudal house of Macfarlane of that Ilk; who seems, amid his mercantile pursuits, not to have forgotten the motto of his family" Astra castra, Numen lumen ;"-" The stars my camp, the Lord my light;"—and who, dying in 1755, bequeathed the contents of his observatory to the University in which he had received his education. The great astronomer Oltmanns, the companion of Humboldt, in mentioning, among some observations from which various latitudes and longitudes in the West Indies were accurately determined, those which Mr. Macfarlane had made, at Port Royal, near Kingston, Jamaica, (Phil. Trans. for 1723, p. 235, and for 1750, p. 523), has said:" Macfarlane was provided with "excellent English instruments, and very skilful in the

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theory and practice of astronomy."* An account of certain curious lunar observations of another sort, made by the Clan Macfarlane in earlier times, but of which the learned and worthy merchant of Port Royal was of course guiltless, is given in Sir Walter Scott's note on Mac-Farlane's buat, or lantern, in 'Waverley,' chapter xxxviii., where he says, "The clan of Mac-Farlane, occupying the fastnesses of the western side "of Loch Lomond, were great depredators on the Low Country; and, as their excursions were made usually by night, the moon was proverbially called their lantern. Their "celebrated pibroch of Hoggil nam bo, which is the name of "their gathering-tune, intimates similar practices," &c.t The minute of a University meeting on the 26th of October, bears that "Several of the instruments from Jamaica having "suffered by the sea-air, especially those made of iron, Mr. "Watt, who is well skilled in what relates to the cleaning "and preserving of them, being accidentally in town, Mr. "Moor and Dr. Dick are appointed to desire him to stay "some time in town to clean them, and put them in the best "order for preserving them from being spoiled." On the 2nd of December the same records bear that "a precept was signed "to pay James Watt five pounds sterling for cleaning and "refitting the instruments lately come from Jamaica ;"-this being, in all probability, the first money he had earned on his own account since the termination of his brief apprenticeship.

His next object was to endeavour to establish himself in the way of his trade in the city of Glasgow; but here he was met by obstacles of the same sort as those which in London had first well-nigh excluded him from the brief instruction which he sought, and then might have consigned him, without hope of rescue, to the embraces of the pressgang. Neither being the son of a burgess, nor having, as yet, married the daughter of one, nor having served a regular apprenticeship to a craft, he was visited, by tradesmen of more arrogant and

*Recueil d'Observations Astronomiques, Voyage de Humboldt et 'Bonpland,' Quatrième Partie, tome

ii., p. 589, ed. 1810.

Abbotsford edition, vol. i. p. 213.

far more unfounded pretensions than the modest youth whom they persecuted, with a sort of temporal excommunication; and was forbidden to set up even a humble workshop, himself its solitary tenant, within the limits of the burgh. He now signally found the advantage of that academical support which the University uniformly extended to him. By midsummer, 1757, he had received permission to occupy an apartment and open a shop within the precincts of the College, and to use the designation of "Mathematical-instrument-maker to the "University;" and, though it does not appear that any contemporaneous record has been preserved in the archives of the University of the date of the workshop having been assigned to him, on the 27th of November, 1759, directions were given for having "the room above Mr. Watt's workshop" repaired.* In the autumn of 1757, the foundation-stone of an astronomical observatory, to receive the collection of instruments which he had repaired and set up, and to be called the Macfarlane Observatory, was laid, he being then twenty-one years of age. At the same time, however, he had the sorrow and misfortune to lose his able and true friend, Dr. Dick; and the result, in a pecuniary point of view, of this first year of his business, was very far from being a hopeful one.

On the 15th September, 1758, (the year in which his old master, Morgan, died), he thus writes from Glasgow to his father:-"As I have now had a year's trial here, I am able "to form a judgment of what may be made of this business, " and find that unless it be the Hadley's instruments, there is "little to be got by it, as at most other jobs I am obliged to "do the most of them myself; and as it is impossible for one "person to be expert at everything, they very often cost me "more time than they should do. However, if there could "be a ready sale procured for Hadley's quadrants, I could do very well, as I and one lad can finish three in a week easily; "and selling them at 288. 6d., which is vastly below what "they were ever sold at before, I have 408. clear on the

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See Deeds instituting Bur- 'University of Glasgow,' 1850: 4to., 'saries, Scholarships, and other p. 215.

'Foundations in the College and

"three. So it will be absolutely necessary that I take a trip "to Liverpool to look for customers, and hope that upon the "profits of what I shall be able to sell there, I can go to. "London in the spring, when I make no doubt of selling

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more than I can get made; all which I want your advice 66 on. And if that does not succeed, I must fall into some "other way of business, as this will not do in its present "situation." The sale, however, of the profitable Hadley's instruments appears to have increased at home so much, as to have rendered the proposed speculative trading voyage to Liverpool unnecessary.

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From the advertisement already referred to, dated October 22, 1759, of the engraved map of the river Clyde, as “to "be sold by James Watt, at his shop in the College of Glasgow," as well as from the entry in the College records of the repairs to be done in "the room above Mr. Watt's "workshop," we know that, up to that time at least, he continued to use the shelter of the academic walls for the purposes of his trade. By the 7th of October in that year, he appears to have entered into a sort of partnership with a Mr. John Craig, to carry on and extend the business in which he was engaged, continuing to occupy his rooms and workshop in the College till 1763.

A Journal of the partnership concern, kept from October, 1759, till April, 1765, commences with the following entry :"An Inventory of Tools, Goods, &c., belonging to us, James "Watt and John Craig, each one-half. Taken Oct. 7th, 1759, " at Glasgow ;" and then enumerates a variety of mechanical tools, from a turning-lathe to a flatting-mill; with philosophical instruments, chiefly mathematical and optical, from the familiar "Hadley's quadrants" to microscopes and seacompasses; the whole to the value of . £91 19 3 Which, with "cash on hand,"

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108 0 83

Made the little stock in trade amount to £200 00

ready

A small but steadily increasing traffic brought the “ "money sales," towards the end of the period over which

the Journal extends, up to about 50l. per month, or 6007. per annum; a large portion of which, however, must have gone to pay for materials and the wages of workmen. James Watt is throughout credited with a salary of 351. per annum; Craig appearing to have taken no share in the manufacturing part of the business, but only, (as is shown by a memorandum in the Journal), to have been book-keeper to the concern, and to have advanced the greater portion of the requisite funds. One journeyman throughout the year, and three or four others, from time to time, as occasion required, were all that Mr. Watt at first found it necessary to employ; but before the end of 1764 their number had increased to sixteen "of "all arms." Among their names we find those of three Gardners,-Alexander, David, and John,—of whom one at least was long afterwards known in Glasgow as a wellinstructed and reputable philosophical-instrument-maker. From the accounts of the business coming to a close in 1765, and Mr. Watt having said in a letter to Mr. Boulton in 1768, "about three years ago, a gentleman who was concerned with "me died," we conclude that the termination of the partnership is thus explained.

In the retired course of life which, from choice as well as necessity, he appears to have followed, manual labour and mental study were blended in pretty equal proportions; but idleness or mere amusement had certainly no share. He ardently seized every opportunity of extending his acquaintance with the various branches of physical philosophy, and of investigating the principles of its phenomena, as if prophetically conscious that to his untaught but earnest apprehension might be revealed those secrets which hitherto had been hidden even from the wise and learned; endeavouring,—to use an expression of his own,-" to find out the weak side of "Nature, and to vanquish her,"-" for Nature," he again says, "has a weak side, if we can only find it out!" Beyond the necessity for some daily labour in order to earn his daily bread, and his hope,-often, as will be seen, very uncertain,— of future independence, he had little else than the pleasure he found in philosophical pursuits to stimulate or reward his