Note 84 — Chapter VIII · Watt’s Connexion with Dr. Roebuck—Watt acts as Surveyor and Engineer.

“I have,” he writes, “just now got a curious book, being an account of all the machines, furnaces, methods of working, profits, &c., of the mines of the Upper Hartz. It is unluckily in German, which I understand little of, but am improving in by the help of a truly Chymical Swiss Dyer, who is come here to dye standing red on linen and cotton, in which he is successful. He is according to the custom of philosophers ennuyé to a great degree, but seems to be more modest than is usual with them; and, what is still more unusual, is attached only to his dyeing, though he has a tolerable knowledge of chymestry. He promises to make me a coat that will not wet though boiled in water. This would be of great use to a hundred people I see just now running by, wet to the skin.... I verily believe the drops are an inch in diameter! To return to the book—it contains an account of all the unsuccessful experiments that have been tried in the Hartz, and I assure you it gives me some consolation to see the great Liebnitz, the rival of Newton, bungling repeatedly, applying wind mills to raise ore while water ran idle past him. There is among other machines the fellow of Blackie’s, only worked by water, and a full and true account of why it did not succeed, which he should read. Their machines in general display great ingenuity though ignorance of principles.”—Watt to Small, May 28, 1769. Boulton MSS.