Watt's next "hobby" fortunately became an engrossing occupation and kept
him alert. This was a machine for copying sculpture. A machine he had
seen in Paris for tracing and multiplying the dies of medals, suggested
the other. After much labor and many experiments he did get some measure
of success, and made a large head of Locke in yellow wood, and a small
head of his friend Adam Smith.
Long did Watt toil at the new hobby in the garret where it had been
created, but the garret proved too hot in summer and too cold in
winter. March 14, 1810, he writes Berthollet and Leveque:
I still do a little in mechanics: a part of which, if I live to
complete it, I shall have the honor of communicating to my
friends in France.
He went steadily forward and succeeded in making some fine copies in
1814. For one of Sappho he gives dates and the hours required for
various parts, making a total of thirty-nine. Some censorious
Sabbatarians discovered that the day he was employed one hour "doing her
breast with 1/8th drill" was Sabbath, which in one who belonged to a
strict Scottish Covenanter family, betokened a sad fall from grace. When
we consider that his health was then precarious, that he was debarred
from chemical experiments, and depended solely upon mechanical subjects;
that in all probability it was a stormy day (Sunday, February 3, 1811),
knowing also that "Satan finds mischief still for idle hands to do," we
hope our readers will pardon him for yielding to the irresistible
temptation, even if on the holy Sabbath day for once he could not "get
off" his captivating hobby.
The historical last workshop of the great worker with all its contents
remains open to the public to-day just as it was when he passed away.
Pilgrims from many lands visit it, as Shakespeare's birthplace, Burns'
cottage, and Scott's Abbottsford attract their many thousands yearly. We
recommend our readers to add to these this garret of Watt in their
pilgrimages.
[1] Sinclair's "Development of the Locomotive" tends to deprive
Stephenson of some part of his fame as inventor. Much importance is
attached to Hedley's "Puffing Billy," 1813, which is pronounced to have
been a commercial success. Sinclair, however, credits Stephenson with
doing most of all men to introduce the Locomotive. As the final verdict
may admit Hedley and cannot expel Stephenson from the temple of fame, we
pass the sentence as written, leaving to future disputants to adjust
rival claims.
CHAPTER VIII
THE RECORD OF THE STEAM ENGINE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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