http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/389815122

Industrial revolution a documentary history. Series 1, The Boulton and Watt Archive and the Matthew Boulton papers from the Birmingham Central Library. Part 2, Muirhead I. Notebooks and papers of James Watt and family

These notebooks and papers are a good source of information on Watt's developing interest in steam power including details of his experiments. There is a section of correspondence between James Watt and significant contemporaries, such as John Smeaton, John Rennie, Joseph Priestley, Joseph Banks, Joseph Black and Jean André de Luc, concerning various experiments with air, conversion of water to air, and the composition of water. There is also much material on canals and canal surveys, early negotiations with Roebuck and Boulton, 1772-1774; insights into the patent process; engineering works and numerous river surveys; Watt engines in Cornwall and throughout England and Scotland; and some printed items including "Directions for erecting and working the newly-invented steam engines by Boulton and Watt" (annotated copy 1779). There is substantial documentation on the Soho Foundry and Soho Manufactory, and on the financing of the Watt engines by Boulton and Watt and by the firm of Boulton & Fothergill. The materials in this microfilm project allow scholars to examine closely the impact of Watt's invention and see clearly the ties between business, industry and scientific advances.

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