It is indeed probable--though Boulton was slow to admit it--that he had been extending his business more rapidly than his capital would conveniently allow; for we find him becoming more and more pressed for means to meet the interest on the borrowed money invested in buildings, tools, and machinery. He had obtained 10,000_l._ from a Mr. Tonson of London; and on the death of that gentleman, in 1772, he had considerable difficulty in raising the means to pay off the debt. His embarrassment was increased by a serious commercial panic, aggravated by the failure of Fordyce brothers, by which a considerable sum deposited with them remained locked up for some time, and he was eventually a loser to the extent of 2000_l._ Other failures and losses followed; and trade came almost to a standstill. Yet he bravely held on. “We have a thousand mouths at Soho to feed,” he says; “and it has taken so much labour and pains to get so valuable and well-organised a staff of workmen together, that the operations of the manufactory must be carried on at whatever risk.” He continued to receive distinguished visitors at his works. “Last week,” he wrote Mr. Ebbenhouse, “we had Prince Poniatowski, nephew of the King of Poland, and the French, Danish, Sardinian, and Dutch Ambassadors; this week we have had Count Orloff, one of the five celebrated brothers who are such favourites with the Empress of Russia; and only yesterday I had the Viceroy of Ireland, who dined with me. Scarcely, a day passes without a visit from some distinguished personage.” Besides carrying on the extensive business connected with his manufactory at Soho, this indefatigable man found time to prosecute the study of several important branches of practical science. It was scarcely to be supposed that he had much leisure at his disposal; but in life it often happens that the busiest men contrive to find the most leisure; and he who is “up to the ears” in work, can, nevertheless, snatch occasional intervals to devote to inquiries in which his heart is engaged. Hence we find Boulton ranging at intervals over a wide field of inquiry; at one time studying geology, and collecting fossils, minerals, and specimens for his museum; at another, reading and experimenting on fixed air; and at another studying Newton’s works with the object of increasing the force of projectiles.[109] But the subject which perhaps more than all interested him was the improvement of the Steam Engine, which shortly after led to his introduction to James Watt. [109] Among Boulton’s scientific memoranda, we find some curious speculations, bearing the date of 1765, relative to improvements which he was trying to work out in gunnery. He proposed the truer boring of the guns, the use of a telescopic sight, and a cylindrical shot with its end of a parabolic form as presenting in his opinion the least resistance to the air. CHAPTER X. BOULTON AND THE STEAM ENGINE--CORRESPONDENCE WITH WATT.