INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY
Series One: The Boulton & Watt Archive and the Matthew Boulton Papers from Birmingham Central Library

Part 11: Engineering Drawings, c.1801-1865

Part 11 completes our coverage of all the engineering drawings not already covered by Parts 3 and 5 of Industrial Revolution: A Documentary History. They relate to the period after 1800 when James Watt Junior and Matthew Robinson Boulton increasingly took over the day to day running of the Boulton & Watt business interests. Included are engine drawings and portfolios covering other new ventures such as steamboats and mint engines.

James Watt Junior became passionately interested in a new application of his father's motive force, the steamboat. He gave much assistance to Robert Fulton, including the steam engine by which Fulton's Clermont was able to make the first successful steam-powered ascent and descent of the Hudson River in 1807. A decade later Watt bought the Caledonia, fitted her with new engines, and sailed her to Holland and up the Rhine, the first man to do so by steam. He remained deeply involved in the problems and prospects of steam navigation through the 1820s and 1830s, and when his partnership with Matthew Robinson Boulton was dissolved in 1840, James Watt Junior assumed sole responsibility for Soho Foundry until his death in 1848.

Portfolios 1123 to 1279 cover Boat Engines with drawings for a total of 286 engines relating to 151 different vessels. There are drawings for: 

 - Robert Fulton's Clermont, for Watt's Caledonia
 - for HMS Congo
 - Princess Charlotte for Clyde Steam Boat Company
 - 44 Gun Frigates for the Royal Navy

There are also drawings for vessels for the Hudson Bay Company, the Sicilian Government, Ceylon, J B Humphreys for use on rivers in Germany, the Imperial & Royal Danube Steam Navigation Company, Austrian Lloyd's Steam Navigation Company, Bombay Steam Navigation Company, Tyne Steam Packet Company, John Molson in Montreal, Dublin & London Steam Marine Company, Vander Hoop in Amsterdam, the London & Margate Steam Packet Company, the Carlisle & Liverpool Steam Packet Company, and a series of vessels for the British Post Office. The bulk of these drawings span the period 1804-1847.

Matthew Boulton was the genius behind the first two of the three Soho Mints. The first version was constructed in 1788-1789, but the drawings reproduced here relate both to its more important successor completed in 1799 and also other mints around the world in Calcutta, Bombay, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Mexico, Brazil, Russia and the Royal Mint in London, based upon the Soho model. Boulton's coining operations used all the latest technology of the time and reached a peak during the period 1800-1813. Plans of the layouts of the various mints are included with the drawings for mint engines and coining presses.

His son, Matthew Robinson Boulton, took over primary responsibility for all his father's coinage enterprises, including Soho Mint. He also inherited Soho Manufactory and built the third version of the Soho Mint which began operation in 1831.

The material on pumping engines, 1801-1844, relates to the Thetford drainage scheme, the Gravesend Tunnel, drainage schemes in Holland near the River Yssel, equipment for the Halbeath, Werneth, Harlet, Plasmostyn and Kenton collieries, the Carnarvon mine in North Wales, Wanlock Head lead mine and even one engine designed for the Nabob Vizier of Oude, Lucknow in India.

There are a great number of drawings of crank engines for the same period which were ordered for cotton mills in Glasgow, Lancashire and Yorkshire, for a distillery in Fife, a ropery at Port Glasgow, a flax mill at Arbroath, a saw mill in Glasgow, a corn mill in Halifax, an oil mill in Hull, silk mills in Cheshire, a colliery near Rotherham, Tyne Iron Company in Newcastle, Constitution Brewery in Spittalfields, a distillery in Whitechapel Road and for a flint mill and pottery in Stoke. The drawings dated November 1844 are for the Patent Welded Iron Tube Company in Wednesbury, Staffordshire. Other drawings are for the iron works at Bilston, Tredegar and Dowlais, for the glass works at Smethwick, Britannia Nail Company in Birmingham, the Deptford Corn Mill (ordered by George and John Rennie) and the forge engine for the smithery at HMS Dockyard Woolwich. Further afield customers include a demerara sugar mill in the West Indies, a saw mill in New Orleans (May 1806), a corn or rice mill for the harbour at Baltimore (June 1817) and a saw mill for Georgia in the United States (October 1818). The geographical range in the distribution of Boulton & Watt engines is further shown by drawings for an engine for the armoury in Constantinople, a rope works in St Petersburg and a flour mill in Cadiz.

There are also drawings of dock and harbour engines, 1801-1810, concentrating on the London Dock Company, St Katherine's Docks (with lots of letters and estimates as well as drawings), the West India Dock Company, Chatham Dockyard, the East India Dock Company (both in Bombay and London), the Dublin Custom House Dock, Woolwich Dockyard, Liverpool, Leith and Holyhead Docks. Much of the material reveals the involvement of John Rennie with these projects.

Vacuum and blowing engines, 1801-1850, went to Carron Iron Works, Tredegar, Old Park, Blaenavon, Dowlais, Plymouth and Calder Iron Works in order to facilitate the growth of British industrial might in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Other portfolios cover drawings of the 1840s made for the South Devon Railway and for the London, Croydon & Epsom Railway.

Canal Engines are also well represented with an emphasis on the Birmingham Canal Company, the Grand Junction Canal Company, the Kennet & Avon Canal Company, the Caledonian Canal Company and the Portsmouth & Arundel Canal Company. There are also portfolios of drawings on the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal Company, Regents Canal Company and the Katwyk and Rhine Canal.

The supply of equipment for Water Works and Gas Plants is a definite feature of this period. There are many folders of drawings for New River, Chelsea, West Middlesex, East London, Clifton, Aberdeen and Glasgow Water Works. There are portfolios for other sites throughout Britain along with three folders for Hamburg. Gas Plants in Manchester, Leeds, Shrewsbury and Aberdeen are well covered.

A numerical sequence of Side-Lever Engines (portfolios 1030-1069) includes drawings for a Lead Works near Rotherhithe, Britannia Flour Mills in Birmingham, the Agua Fria Gold Mining Company in California, Vatch Mills near Stroud, Chorlton Mills, Hope Mills and several engines for Messrs Charles Mackintosh & Company, one for J C Drewsen in Copenhagen and several others for Messrs George Cheetham & Sons in Staleybridge.

A further numerical sequence of Small Side-Lever Independent Type Engines (portfolios 721-789) covers various designs for owners such as Josiah Spode, Barrow Lees & Company, Blackburn Spinning Company, Vickers & Tedstill, Stacey Wise & Company, two breweries in Dublin, Witham Navigation, Sir John Hope and a winding engine for Heaton Colliery.

A considerable number of engines of the independent type were supplied to the Sugar Plantations in Trinidad, Tobago, Essequibo, Demerera, Jamaica, Grenada, Berbice, St Lucia, St Croix, Brazil, North Carolina and New Orleans. As these plantations expanded there was a growing need to acquire equipment and machinery powered by Boulton & Watt engines. In the period 1803-1840 the firm of Boulton, Watt & Co took advantage of this potential new market. Many drawings indicate the involvement of John Rennie in the designs for mills, engines and machinery. Material for Thomson, Hankey & Company in portfolio 832 covers Duckenfield Hall Estate in Jamaica, Warthy Park Estate in Jamaica, Lataste Estate in Grenada and the Plantain River Estate. These papers cover various orders for work and include plans of the estates, some correspondence as well as drawings and designs. When this amount of detail is included, these sources provide valuable insights for social historians studying plantation life. Other portfolios focus on Dry River Estate in Berbice, Union Estate in Trinidad, Sevilla Estate in Trinidad, Friendships Plantation in Essequibo, Money Musk Estate in Jamaica, Orange Hill Estate in Jamaica, Carlisle Estate in Jamaica, Hampton Court Estate in Berbice, Eliza and Mary Plantation in Berbice, Richmond Plantation in Demerera, Plantation Profit in Berbice and Harmony Hall in Jamaica. Quite a few of the drawings are not unique to one plantation, but bear notes listing the names of four or five agents ordering similar engines or machinery for various different customers. These reveal less about plantation life, but indicate more about the general type and quantity of engines supplied.

Portfolios 1329 to 1346 provide some important miscellaneous drawings. These include a double reciprocating engine at Soho Manufactory, sliding valve engines, drawings of equalizing beams and rotative motions, a Dutch windmill, heating apparatus for Leamington Baths, sketches of boilers, atmospheric and various other types of early engines, flywheels, tooth-wheels, gears, connecting rods, nozzles, cylinders, condensers, copying presses, plans of the buildings for Soho Foundry and Soho Manufactory.

Over 7,600 drawings are included in Part 11. A detailed listing is made available in the paperback guide which accompanies this microfilm project. It incorporates all the information on ownership, type and size of engine, horsepower, date and mode of employment, collated from the Catalogue of Old Engines (itself reproduced at the start of Reel 29 in Part 3 of this microfilm project).