Failing sufficient customers for his instruments, Watt sent those which he had made to Port Glasgow and Greenock, where his father helped him to dispose of them. He also bethought him of taking a journey to Liverpool and London, for the purpose of obtaining orders for instruments; though, for some reason or other--most probably because he was averse to “pushing,” and detested the chaffering of trade--his contemplated journey was not undertaken. He therefore continued to execute only such orders as came to him, so that his business remained very small. He began to fear that he must give up the trade that would not keep him, and he wrote to his father: “If this business does not succeed, I must fall into some other.” To eke out his income, he took to map and chart selling, and, amongst other things, offered for sale the Map of the River Clyde,[69] originally surveyed by his uncle John. [69] The ‘Glasgow Courant’ of Oct. 22, 1759, contains the following advertisement:-- “_Just Published_, “And to be Sold by James Watt, at his Shop in the College of Glasgow, price 2_s._ 6_d._, “A large Sheet Map of the River Clyde, from Glasgow to Portincross, from an Actual Survey. “To which is added, “A Draught of Part of the North Channel, with the Frith of Clyde according to the best authorities.” It is well for the world at large that Watt’s maps and quadrants remained on his hands unsold. The most untoward circumstances in life have often the happiest results. It is not Fortune that is blind, but man. Had his instrument-making business prospered, Watt might have become known as a first-class maker of quadrants, but not as the inventor of the condensing steam-engine. It was because his own special business failed that he was driven to betake himself to other pursuits, and eventually to prosecute the invention on which his fame mainly rests. At first he employed part of his leisure in making chemical and other experiments; but as these yielded him no returns in the shape of money, he was under the necessity of making some sort of article that was in demand, and for which he could find customers. Although he had no ear for music, and scarcely knew one note from another, he followed the example of the old spectacle-maker, his first master, in making fiddles, flutes, and guitars, which met with a readier sale than his quadrants. These articles were what artists call “pot-boilers,” and kept him in funds until a maintenance could be earned by higher-class work. We are informed, through a lady at Glasgow, that her father bought a flute from Watt, who said to him, in selling it: “Woe be to ye, Tam, if you’re no guid luck; for this is the first I’ve sold!”