Watt, on his return to Birmingham from Cornwall, proceeded to embody his plan for securing rotary motion in a working engine, so that he might be enabled to exhibit the thing in actual work. He was stimulated to action by the report which reached his ears that a person in Birmingham had set agoing a self-moving steam rotator, in imitation of his, on which he exclaimed, “Surely the Devil of Rotations is afoot! I hope he will whirl them into Bedlam or Newgate.”[244] Boulton, who had by this time gone to Cornwall for the winter, wrote to him from Cosgarne, “It is certainly expensive; but nevertheless I think, as we have so much at stake, that we should proceed to execute such rotatives as you have specified.... You should get a good workman or two to execute your ideas with despatch, lest they perish. The value of their wages for a year might be 100_l._, but it would be the means of our keeping the start that we now have of all others. But above all, there is nothing of more importance than the perfect completion of the double expansive reciprocating engine as soon as may be.”[245] Watt replied that he was busily occupied in getting the rotative motion applied to one of the Soho engines. “These rotatives,” said he, “have taken up all my time and attention for months, so that I can scarcely say that I have done anything which can be called business. Our accounts lie miserably confused. We are going on in a very considerable weekly expense at Soho, and I can see nothing likely to be produced from it which will be an equivalent.” Speaking of the prospect of further improvements, he added, “It is very possible that, excepting what can be done in improving the mechanics of the engine, nothing much better than we have already done will be allowed by Nature, who has fixed a _ne plus ultra_ in most things.”[246] [244] Watt to Boulton, 19th September, 1782. [245] Boulton to Watt, 28th September, 1782. [246] Watt to Boulton, 3rd October, 1782. While thus hopelessly proceeding with the rotative engine, Watt was disquieted by the intelligence which reached him from Boulton, as to the untoward state of affairs in Cornwall. At some of the most important mines, in which Boulton and Watt held shares, the yield had considerably fallen off, and the price of the ores being still very low, they had in a great measure ceased to be remunerative. Hence appeals were made to Boulton on all sides for an abatement of the engine dues. Unwilling to concede this, the adventurers proceeded to threaten him with the Hornblowers, whose engine they declared their intention of adopting. As, however, Boulton and Watt’s engines were all going exceedingly well, and as the Hornblowers had not yet been able to get one of their boasted engines to work satisfactorily,[247] the adventurers hesitated for the present to take any overt steps in the matter.