Note 236 — Chapter XV · Watt again visits Cornwall—Invention of the Rotary Motion—The Patent Right again assailed.

Boulton to Watt, 26th March, 1782. The following was Boulton’s method of dealing with a refractory and drunken workman:—“I told you in my former letters how Jim Taylor had gone on,—that I had talked to him in a friendly way but all to no purpose. He came last Monday evening to the smith’s shop, drank more ale, was sent for, and he became abusive to the men, saying we had nobody could work well but himself, and that we could not do without him. The next morning I went into the shop predetermined to part with him. I stopped the noise of bellows and hammers, and appealed to the jury of the shop for the justice of my determination, and made the best use I could of the example. I sent Taylor off with deserved contempt, and to convince him that we really could do without him. However we are very much behind hand in nozzles.”—Boulton to Watt, 19th April, 1782.