Offering a dramatic increase in fuel efficiency, James Watt's design became synonymous with steam engines, due in no small part to his business partner, Matthew Boulton.

Both of Watt's basic engine types were commercially very successful, and by 1800, the firm Boulton & Watt had constructed 496 engines, with 164 driving reciprocating pumps, 24 serving blast furnaces, and 308 powering mill machinery ; most of the engines generated from 5 to.

** Boulton and Watt's Smethwick Engine, now the oldest working engine in the world, is brought into service ( May ).

Watt's partner Matthew Boulton was so impressed by Murdoch's wooden hat, made on a lathe of his own design, that he hired him.

The risk of his patents being infringed was something which particularly exercised Watt, and so Murdoch was, in addition to his other activities, called upon to make reports and swear out affidavits for legal actions against Boulton & Watt's competitors.

Other evidence attributing this invention to William Murdoch takes the form of a letter from Boulton to a colleague concerning Watt's forthcoming October patents in which he writes:

James Watt's design became synonymous with steam engines, due in no small part to his business partner, Matthew Boulton.

James Watt was unable to have an accurately bored cylinder for his first steam engine, trying for several years until John Wilkinson invented a suitable boring machine in 1774, boring Boulton & Watt's first commercial engine in 1776.

He became associated with James Watt when Watt's business partner, John Roebuck, was unable to pay a debt to Boulton, who accepted Roebuck's share of Watt's patent as settlement.

* Boulton and Watt's 1779 Smethwick Engine is moved to the Birmingham Canal Navigations Ocker Hill depot in England for preservation.

With this machine he was able to bore the cylinder for Boulton & Watt's first commercial engine, and was given an exclusive contract for the provision of cylinders.

In Broseley, John Wilkinson pioneered precision engineering by providing cylinders for Boulton and Watt's improved steam engines, and by boring cannons with greater accuracy and range.

Boulton also arranges, in 1775, an Act of Parliament extending the term of Watt's 1769 patent to 1799.

Richard Arkwright pioneered Watt's Rotation around a fixed axis | rotary-motion steam engine in his cotton mills and within 15 years there were 500 + Boulton & Watt steam engines in British factories and mines. 1788: Boulton and Watt build the rotative steam engine also known as a piston engine, an improved steam engine whose smooth reciprocating action enable it to drive a variety of rotary machinery.

Cameron later articled in law, was called to the bar in 1849 and entered practice with William Henry Boulton in Toronto.

For example, the question of the legality and morality of a widower who wished to marry his deceased wife's sister was the subject of long and fierce debate in the United Kingdom in the 19th century, involving, among others, Matthew Boulton.

Though others made a similar innovation elsewhere, the large scale introduction of this was the work of William Murdoch, an employee of Boulton and Watt, the Birmingham steam engine pioneers.

Josiah Wedgwood and Matthew Boulton ( whose Soho Manufactory was completed in 1766 ) were other prominent early industrialists, who employed the factory system.

The new firm of Boulton and Watt was eventually highly successful and Watt became a wealthy man.

The field of application for the invention was greatly widened when Boulton urged Watt to convert the reciprocating motion of the piston to produce rotational power for grinding, weaving and milling.

Boulton and Watt never collected all that was owed them, but the disputes were all settled directly between the parties or through arbitration.

Darwin was a physician and poet who had studied at Cambridge and Edinburgh ; Boulton had left school at fourteen and started work in his father's business making metal goods in Birmingham at the age of 21.

Although older than both Boulton and Darwin, by 1758 Whitehurst was writing to Boulton telling excitedly of a pyrometer he had built, and looking forward to visiting Birmingham " to spend one day with you in trying all necessary experiments ".

His arrival with a letter of introduction to Matthew Boulton from Benjamin Franklin was to have a galvanising effect on the existing circle, which began to explicitly identify itself as a group and actively started to attract new members.

In 1767 James Keir visited Darwin in Lichfield, where he was introduced to Boulton, Small, Wedgwood and Whitehurst and subsequently decided to move to Birmingham.

William Withering – like Small a physician – was already an acquaintance of Darwin, Boulton and Wedgwood when he moved from Stafford to Birmingham and became a member of the Society in 1776.

The leading figure behind the establishment of the society as a more organised body during this early period seems to have been Matthew Boulton: his home at Soho House in Handsworth was the principal venue for meetings, and in 1776 he is recorded as planning " to make many Motions to the Members respecting new Laws, and regulations, such as will tend to prevent the decline of a society which I hope will be lasting.

" This reliance on Boulton was also to prove a weakness, however, as the period coincided with the peak of his work building up his steam engine business and he was frequently absent.

Shortly after his arrival Lunar meetings moved from Sunday afternoons to Mondays to accommodate Priestley's duties as a clergyman, while the society's dependence on Matthew Boulton was lessened by holding meetings at other members ' houses in addition to Soho House.

Joseph Priestley himself was driven from the town, leaving England entirely for the United States in 1794, William Withering's house was invaded by rioters and Matthew Boulton and James Watt had to arm their employees to protect the Soho Manufactory.

In 1789 he set about modernising the process of malt grinding and pumping, which had been previously worked with the employment of horses, by introducing what was reputed to be the first steam engine ( Boulton and Watt ) to be used for this purpose outside of London, and was then able to describe his business as the Faversham Steam Brewery.

The world's first single engined turboprop aircraft was the Armstrong Siddeley Mamba-powered Boulton Paul Balliol, which first flew on 24 March 1948.

Centrally mounted engines powering wing-mounted airscrews was a concept that was explored with the large four-engined Bristol Tramp, the twin-engined Boulton Paul Bodmin and the next design to emerge from Parnall, the single-engined Possum.

Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton and Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham, England.

Matthew Boulton remarked in 1770 how " by the many mechanical contrivances and extensive apparatus wh we are possess'd of, our men are enabled to do from twice to ten times the work that can be done without the help of such contrivances ".

It is almost certain that Murdoch's contract of employment, in common with those for other employees of Boulton and Watt, specified that anything he invented would be the intellectual property of his employers, and frequently it was they who filed, and benefited from, patents on these inventions.

The length of time taken to complete this project was partly due to experimentations and improvements in the process developed by Murdoch to make the lighting of a large factory by gas practicable and cost effective-such as purifying the gas with lime to remove the smell and determining the best temperature to heat coal to obtain the maximum quantity of gas-although Murdoch continued to be involved in other engine work for Boulton and Watt, which took up much of his time.

This failure to apply for a patent, despite the commercial participation of Boulton and Watt in this field, left the fledgling industry of gas production and lighting open for exploitation by other commercial interests, such as his former assistant Samuel Clegg and Friedrich Winzer.

Boulton and Watt also provided engines for a number of other marine vessels.

Boulton, a Long Island native, decided to create a new league that would have a higher salary cap for its players and a longer season than most of the other independent baseball organizations.

Boulton also emphasized signing players of Major League Baseball experience for all Atlantic League teams, raising the level of play above other independent leagues.

Riel's forces detected the men, and on February 17, Boulton, Scott and 46 other men were captured near Fort Garry.

Boulton applied modern techniques to the minting of coins, striking millions of pieces for Britain and other countries, and supplying the Royal Mint with up-to-date equipment.

The company mainly built and modified aircraft under contract to other manufacturers, but had a few notable designs of its own, such as the Boulton Paul Defiant.

The other engine, also built by Boulton and Watt, was at the other end of the summit level at Spon Lane.

At the same time as acting as agent he was also trading on his own account as a millwright, enabling him to provide the complementary shafts, gears and other necessities to harness the power of the Boulton & Watt steam engines.

Dumont ’ s Métis and Boulton ’ s force then opened fire on each other.

Josiah Wedgwood in Staffordshire and Matthew Boulton at his Soho Manufactory were other prominent early industrialists, who employed the factory system.

The area between the Salhouse and Plumstead roads ( outside of the outer ring road ) was originally the Cavalry training ground and then became the Royal Flying Corps Mousehold Heath aerodrome where Boulton Paul, among other manufacturers, passed over the aircraft they made for service.

As well as Boulton and Paul, the firm of Lawrence Scott & Electromotors was also involved in the war effort, providing shells as well as electrical motors and other components for the Navy.