By this time Watt had called to his aid two other skilled workmen, Law and Murdock, who arrived in Cornwall in the beginning of September, 1779. In Watt’s letters we find frequent allusions to Murdock. Wherever any work had to be done requiring more than ordinary attention, Watt specially directed that “William” should be put to it. “Let William be sent for from Bedworth,” he wrote from Cornwall in 1778, “to set the patterns for nozzles quite right for Poldice.” Boulton wished to send him into Scotland to erect the engine at Wenlockhead, but Watt would not hear of it. “William” was the only man he could trust with the nozzles. Then William was sent to London to take the charge of Chelsea engine; next to Bedworth, to see to the completion of the repairs previous to the final trial; then to Birmingham again to attend to some further special instructions of Watt; and now we find him in Cornwall, to take charge of the principal engines erecting there. William Murdock was not only a most excellent and steady workman, but a man of eminent mechanical genius. He was the first maker of a model locomotive in this country; he was the introducer of lighting by gas, and the inventor of many valuable parts of the working steam-engine, hereafter to be described. His father was a millwright and miller, at Bellow Mill, near Old Cumnock, in Ayrshire, and was much esteemed for his probity and industry, as well as for his mechanical skill. He was the inventor of bevelled cast-iron gear for mills, and his son was proud to exhibit, on the lawn in front of his house at Sycamore Hill, Handsworth, a piece of the first work of the kind executed in Britain. It was cast for him at Carron Ironworks, after the pattern furnished by him, in 1766. William was born in 1754, and brought up to his father’s trade. On arriving at manhood, he became desirous of obtaining a larger experience of mill-work and mechanics than he could acquire in his father’s little mill. Hearing of the fame of Boulton and Watt, and the success of their new engine, he determined to travel south, and seek for a job at Soho. Many Scotchmen were accustomed to call there on the same errand, probably relying on the known clanship of their countrymen, and thinking that they would find a friend and advocate in Watt. But strange to say, Watt did not think Scotchmen capable of becoming first-class mechanics.[181]