Note 344 — Chapter IV

It was the strength of their organisation in London in 1799, as we have seen, that led to the employers’ petition to the House of Commons, out of which sprang the Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800. See also the evidence given by Galloway and other employers before the 1824 Select Committee on Artisans and Machinery; also incidental references in the Life of Sir William Fairbairn, 1877, and other works. We have been unable to discover any documents of engineering societies prior to 1822. Sir William Fairbairn, in the preface to his Mills and Mill-work, 1861, attributes the supersession of the millwright to the changes consequent on the introduction of the steam-engine.