Note 388 — Chapter XXII · Declining Years of Boulton and Watt—Bereavements—Gregory Watt—Death of Boulton.

Boulton to Watt, 10th October, 1802. One of Boulton’s objects in making his contemplated journey to Paris, was to undertake the erection of coining machinery for the French Government, who were about to recoin the whole of their gold, silver, and copper money. With their imperfect machinery, he calculated that it would take them nearly twenty years to accomplish this; whereas with his new machinery he could undertake to turn out a thousand million of pieces in three years. He communicated to Watt, that he had been making experiments as to the maximum speed of his coining machines, worked by the steam-engine, and found that he could regularly strike fifty-three of his copper pieces or fifty-six English crown-pieces per minute, while he could with one press in collars also regularly strike India copper pieces of half the diameter at the rate of 106 to 112 per minute, or from 6360 to 6720 pieces per hour; but when pieces of half an inch diameter were wanted he had recourse to his new small press, with which he could strike from 150 to 200 pieces per minute! “My presses,” said he, “are far more exact and more durable, and my means of working them are now infinitely beyond anything they (the French coiners) have ever thought of, and my mint is now in far better order than ever.”