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Laminated wrappers, 4to, 27 cm, 63 pp, plates, ills. 1 lot (Lot 70). A substantial separate auction catalogue devoted to an archive of correspondence from Matthew Boulton and James Watt to mining companies and engineers in the South-West of England. The archive is extensively described, quoted and illustrated over some 60 pages. From the introduction to the catalogue description: "The Papers of Thomas Wilson (1748-1820), agent to Boulton & Watt in Cornwall, being the incoming correspondence from James Watt, Matthew Boulton, their respective sons and others connected with various branches of the firm's affairs at Soho, (including accounts and statements), Cornish adventurers, rival engineers including the earliest known letters of the celebrated Richard Trevithick, and Ambrose Weston (Boulton & Watt's London solicitor), in relation to the legal actions in defence of Watt's patents, up to their expiry, in all comprising upwards of 1100 manuscript documents on approximately 2000 written leaves, as well as address leaves with contemporary dockets and integral blanks, the whole arranged in 11 volumes, later cloth, 4to, 1780-1800. The record of the development of Watt's invention from pumping engine to motive power for the world, as well as the longest, and largest, regular correspondence entered into by Boulton & Watt, excepting perhaps that between themselves.Watt conceived his engine in Scotland, but Cornwall was its nursery, and where it came of age. The papers of Boulton & Watt in Cornwall chart the story of how this happened through the firm's dealings with the Cornish mines, which collectively, were their first and most important clients. They also show how Boulton & Watt, determined to have their reward for Watt's invention of the separate condenser and other improvements, even at the cost of arresting further developments by the next generation of inventors (who they saw as interlopers and pirates), for twenty-five years, by enforcement of their patent. This merely served to excite their rivals to greater feats of inventiveness and ingenuity, combined with a cunning and skulduggery, which gave the patentees almost as much grief and vexation as their success gave them joy." The archive was acquired by the Cornwall Heritage Trust. Very Good.
Seller Inventory # ABE-49301
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