[213] Watt to Boulton, 24th June, 1781. [214] Watt befriended Jabez like the other members of his family, as appears from the following passage in a letter to Boulton (6th September, 1778):--“Capt. Paul has turned Jabez adrift, having for some time taken umbrage at him because he would do his work well and therefore expensively. Jabez has a bad wife, is poor and unhappy. He is very clever, a good engineer, and industrious, though he seems not to have the faculty of conciliating people’s affections. I fear he will go to Holland, and as he can hurt us [there being no patent for the engine secured there] I must try to get him bread here.” Later, Boulton wrote Watt from Redruth (18th November, 1780),--“Old Hornblower has disobliged Mr. Daniel. I have my fears they will not employ him; but when our own business is sealed to-morrow, I will make a push in his favour. That family hath not been successful in conciliating the affections of the people in this neighbourhood.” It was for some time doubtful what was the precise character of the new engine. Indeed the Hornblowers themselves long remained undecided about its actual form, being still in the throes of invention. They knew that they must copy discreetly, so as not to lay themselves too open to attack; and though they urged the superiority of their engine so strongly as to induce several of the mining companies to believe in them, and even to withhold orders from Boulton and Watt, they refrained as yet from publishing their invention. Watt wrote to his partner that he understood the Hornblowers’ engine was on some new principle, and the only novelty he could think of was a caloric air-engine. He therefore asked Boulton to make all the inquiries he could as to the respective bulks and prices per 1000 feet of all possible kinds of air in their most expanded states. “I am much vexed,” he continued, “by this affair. Jabez does not want abilities: the rest are fools. If they have really found a prize, it will ruin us.... Bankruptcy might ensue to both. But I don’t fear getting my bread independent of engines, though much easier with them.”[215] Watt was, however, in error as to the nature of the Hornblowers’ engine, which he discovered three days later, when he wrote Boulton,-- [215] Watt to Boulton, 16th July, 1781.