Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/294

430 having given ample proofs of great mental endowments Mr Watt thus retired from business, with a well earned competency, which enabled him to enjoy the evening of a well spent life with ease and comfort in the bosom of his family. At no time had he taken any active share in the management of the business of the Soho foundery, nor were his visits to it, even while he was a partner, by any means frequent. Mr Boulton was a man of excellent address, great wealth, of business habits, and full of enterprise, and contributed greatly to the improvement of the steam engine, by taking upon himself the entire management of the works at Soho: he thus relieved from all worldly concern, the mind of his illustrious partner, which was much more profitably employed on those profound and valuable researches, by which he has added so largely to the field of science. As Dupin well observes, "men who devote themselves entirely to the improvement of industry, will feel in all their force the services that Boulton has rendered to the arts and mechanical sciences, by freeing the genius of Watt from a crowd of extraneous difficulties which would have consumed those days that were far better dedicated to the improvement of the useful arts."

Although Mr Watt retired from public business, he did not relax in his ardour for scientific pursuits and new inventions. Towards the end of the year 1809, he was applied to by the Glasgow Water Company to assist them in pointing out a method of leading water across the river, from a well on the south side, which afforded a natural filter. From a consideration of the structure of the lobster's tail, he formed the idea of a flexible main, with ball and socket joints, to be laid across the bed of the river, and which was constructed according to his plan in the summer of 1810. This ingenious contrivance gave such satisfaction, that another precisely similar was added a short time afterwards. Two years subsequent to this, he received the thanks of the Board of Admiralty, for his opinion and advice regarding the formation of the docks then carrying on at Sheerness.

About the year 1813, it was proposed to publish a complete edition of Dr Robison's works, and the materials were delivered, for the purpose of editing, into the hands of his able friend, Flayfair, who, not having sufficient leisure for such an undertaking, transmitted them to Sir D. Brewster. The latter gentleman applied to Mr Watt for his assistance in the revision of the article "Steam Engine," for which article he had originally furnished some materials, when it first appeared in the Encyclopaedia Britannica; and to the article, in its new form, he furnished many valuable corrections and additions.

In 1817, Mr Watt paid a visit to his native country ; and it surprised and delighted his friends to find that he enjoyed good health, his mind possessed its wonted vigour, and his conversation its wonted charms. During the last years of his life, he employed himself in contriving a machine for taking copies of pieces of sculpture. This machine never received the finishing touch of its inventor's hand; but it was brought to such perfection, that seven specimens were executed by it in a very creditable manner. Some of these he distributed among his friends, "as the productions of a young artist, just entering his eighty-third year." When this machine was considerably advanced in construction, Mr Watt learned that a neighbouring gentleman had been for some time engaged in a similar undertaking; and a proposal was made to Mr Watt, that they should jointly take out a patent, which he declined, on the ground, that from his advanced age, it would be unwise for him to enter upon any new speculation. It was always Mr Watt's opinion that this gentleman had no knowledge whatever of the construction of the machine.

The health of Mr Watt, which was naturally delicate, became gradually bet-