Background

The Boulton & Watt (Wilson) papers comprised 1100 letters to Thomas Wilson as agent to Boulton and Watt in Cornwall.  The letters largely reflect the efforts of Boulton and Watt, Wilson and others to defend the Watt patent against a range of entrepreneurs and adventurers in Cornwall. 

This Patent had some interesting aspects:

·         Unusually it was, to all intents and purposes, the patenting of an idea

·         It was lodged with the patent office without accompanying plans

·         It was substantially extended by 25 years on the grounds of Boulton and Watt’s vision that they needed to protect their interests via a private act of parliament having left themselves insufficient time to exploit the technology under the terms of the original patent. 

Another interesting aspect of the correspondence is the scale of the activities.  Daniel, one of the most persistent of the non payers, was refusing to pay more than £70 a month, while at one stage Watt says that he has £15,000 in cash ready for payment for copper supplied from Cornwall.

A Chronology

• Boulton and Watt first meet
• James Watt took out initial patent – note insert definition later
• 25 year extension to patent
• Thomas Wilson arrives in Cornwall
• Cornish engineers visit Birmingham to see new engines
• First Watt engines ordered for Ting Tang and Wheal Busy
• Small Watt engine supplements Smeaton engine
• Watt visits to convert Smeaton engine
• Five engines installed at Consolidated Mines
• Frustrations build as rivals seek to develop technologies
• Court case finally won by Boulton and Watt
• Patent expires

The papers form part of a triangle of papers with the Soho Archives, the majority of which are at Birmingham City Archives and those of Ambrose Weston who operated in London as their legal defence.  The latter have not survived and 90% of the Matthew Boulton letters to Thomas Wilson are not replicated in the Soho Archives.  Many other letters written by the Soho partners when away from Birmingham are also not available. 

James Watt, following advice, submitted a patent application without (as was usual) including plans.  His submission included the essential principles of Watts technology but the patent was to all intents and purposes a catch all for the exploitation of steam.  The Thomas Wilson papers reflect the determination of Cornish adventurers and entrepreneurs, and others notably a Londoner, Maberley, to circumvent the patent and equal determination of Soho to defend it and the income that it generated.

Whatever the controversy, there is no doubt that Watts technology was a huge improvement on the engines exploiting Newcomen’s atmospheric engines could not have come at a better time. Cornwall was on the verge of an explosion in mining.  It lacked however, two essential and related things. The first was the technology to remove water from deep shafts and the second was sufficient fuel, coal or wood to do this using inefficient technologies. It should be noted that Boulton and Watt did not supply complete machines from their own works.  Parts of their machines were supplied from other parts of the Midlands and indeed some were fabricated locally.  The evidence of this may be seen extensively in the correspondence.

The patent: as the Patent Office’s own website recalls, Arkwright’s famous patent for spinning machines was voided for the lack of an adequate specification in 1785 after it had been in existence for ten years, while on the other hand extensive litigation on Watt’s patent for steam engines established the important principle that valid patents could be granted for improvements in a known machine, and for ideas or principles, even though the specification might be limited to bare statements of such improvements or principles provided they could readily be carried into effect or were ‘clothed in’ practical application. It was this and the extension through private act of parliament by Watt of his original patent that was the source of such frustration to the investors, entrepreneurs and engineers of Cornwall.

The mechanism for charging for the technology was interesting. Trials took place to assess the fuel efficiency of a Watt engine against the more traditional Newcomen type engine. The licensing fee was based upon a proportion of the savings estimated being payable to Boulton and Watt.  A significant part of Thomas Wilson’s job was to operate in Cornwall, assessing fees payable and negotiating to ensure that those fees were paid over to Boulton and Watt.  He was largely successful in the first parts where the licensee was co-operative, but almost entirely unsuccessful where they were not.

Wilson was inconsistent in handing the licensing monies over to Boulton and Watt and this is also evident from the correspondence.  Thomas Wilson had moved to Cornwall from Yorkshire via South Wales.  By the time he was in Cornwall, his entrepreneurial instincts were given full reign.  It was to James Watts chagrin that Wilson evidently spent at least as much time maintaining interests in property, brewery and other aspects of mining than he did operating as agent to the Soho operation. There came a time when it was evident to the accountants of the Soho Manufactury that Wilson was not remitting the fees in full. It became clear on investigation that he had diverted these, probably quite innocently but definitely naively, to the cash flow of his own business interests. There evidence of the efforts made by James Watt in particular to ensure that the fees were eventually made over to Boulton and Watt, on the basis of loans and mortgages. 

The correspondence is interesting because of the light it throws upon the operation of Boulton’s and Watt’s activities and for the light it throws on the early stages of the serious industrialisation of Cornish mining, which was to reach its height during the first half of the following century. The correspondence is also interesting for the light it throws on communications, transport, postal history, for the social history it contains, for the direct evidence of activity at certain named Cornish mines at different dates, for the financial aspects of such an operation, it also throws light on the characters involved, in particular James Watts’ cautious introverted and hypochondriac nature, though to be fair the evidence of the letters is that James Watt’s family did suffer from more than its fair share of ill health and tragedy - in particular the loss of his daughter and his son Gregory.

It should not be forgotten that another shortage in Cornwall, that of sufficiently qualified and motivated engineers. Some of the activity in Cornwall was only possible because highly qualified engineers from elsewhere, either moved to Cornwall - such as William Murdoch - or supported activities in Cornwall whilst based at the Soho manufactury.  Many of the most famous engineers of the age worked with or for Boulton and Watt in particular Richard Trevithick and William Murdoch. The correspondence is full of references to these individuals.

It is curious to see the extent to which the great mines of Cornwall became a tourist attraction in the late eighteenth century. There are references to visitors to Cornwall and even some instances where Boulton and Watt asked Wilson, as their agent, to help. In an example from 1785, a Mr Hollis, from London, a gentleman of considerable fortune and respectable character, was recommended by Matthew Boulton as wishing to see the great mines “as are most easily accessible and to be acquainted a little with the general outline of the Cornish business as well as to see anything or place that may be worth the attention of traveller.” He esteems it a particular favour that Wilson will oblige him to contribute to Mr Hollis’s views, but also to furnish him with travelling money he may need.  This letter was carried by hand by Mr Hollis.

Thomas Wilson’s place in Cornish Society must have been an equivocal one as an outsider representing a partnership which was at times extremely unpopular amongst the mining and investing communities must have been a difficult role to play. Others were involved too, John Launder in 1799 writes to say that “you know what trouble it would cause in my family if it was understood I had any concern and perhaps mobbed from the County.  I think it would be much better if you possibly can to employ some other person Sir I am thinking that Thomas Pearson as he lives in Plymouth is a proper person to execute this business.”